UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  PUBLICATIONS 


COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE 

AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 


BERKELEY,  CALIFORNIA 


THE  PRODUCTION  Of  THE  LIMA  BEAN 


THE  NEED  AND  POSSIBILITY  OE  ITS  IMPROVEMENT 


BY 


G.  W.  SHAW  and  M.  E.  SHERWIN 


A  1500-acre  field  of  Lima  Beans. 

BULLETIN  No.  224 

November,  1911 


SACRAMENTO 

W.    W.    SHANNON      -      -      -      -       SUPERINTENDENT    STATE   PRINTING 

1911 


Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  President  of  the  University. 

EXPERIMENT  STATION  STAFF. 

E.  J.  Wickson,  M.A.,  Director  and  Horticulturist. 

E.  W.  Hilgard,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Chemist  (Emeritus). 

W.  A.  Setchell,  Ph.D.,  Botanist. 

Leroy  Anderson,  Ph.D.,  Dairy  Industry  and  Superintendent  University  Farm  Schools. 

M.  E.  Jaffa,  M.S.,  Nutrition  Expert. 

R.  H.  Loughridge,  Ph.D.,  Soil  Chemist  and  Physicist  (Emeritus). 

C.  W.  Woodworth,  M.S.,  Entomologist. 

Ralph  E.  Smith,   B.S.,   Plant  Pathologist  and  Superintendent  of  Southern  California 

Pathological  Laboratory  and  Experiment  Station. 
G.  W.  Shaw,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Experimental  Agronomist  and  Agricultural  Technologist,  in 

charge  of  Cereal  Stations. 

E.  W.  Major,  B.Agr.,  Animal  Industry. 

B.  A.  Etcheverry,  B.S.,  Irrigation  Expert. 

F.  T.  Bioletti,  B.S.,  Viticulturist. 

W.  T.  Clarke,  B.S.,  Assistant  Horticulturist  and  Superintendent  of  University  Exten- 
sion in  Agriculture. 

John  S.  Burd,  B.S.,  Chemist,  in  charge  of  Fertilizer  Control. 

J.  E.  Coit,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Pomologist,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 

George  E.  Colby,  M.S.,  Chemist  (Fruits,  Waters,  and  Insecticides),  in  charge  of 
Chemical  Laboratory. 

H.  J.  Quayle,  M.S.,  Assistant  Entomologist,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 

H.  M.   Hall,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Botanist. 

C.  M.  Haring,  D.V.M.,  Assistant  Veterinarian  and  Bacteriologist. 
E.  B.  Babcock,  B.S.,  Assistant  Agricultural  Education. 

W.  B.  Herms,  M.A.,  Assistant  Entomologist. 

J.  H.  Norton,  M.S.,  Assistant  Chemist,  in  charge  of  Citrus  Experiment  Station,  River- 
side. 
W.  T.  Horne,  B.S.,  Assistant  Plant  Pathologist. 
C.  B.  Lipman,  Ph.D.,  Soil  Chemist  and  Bacteriologist. 
R.  E.  Mansell,  Assistant  Horticulturist,  in  charge  of  Central  Station  grounds. 

A.  J.  Gaumnitz,  Assistant  Agronomist,  University  Farm,  Davis. 
N.  D.  Ingham,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Sylviculture,  Santa  Monica. 

T.  F.  Hunt,  B.S.,  Assistant  Plant  Pathologist. 

P.  L.  McCreary,  B.S.,  Chemist  in  Fertilizer  Control. 

E.  H.  Hagemann,  Assistant  in  Dairying,  Davis. 

R.  M.  Roberts,  Farm  Manager,  University  Farm,  Davis. 

B.  S.  Brown,  B.S.A.,  Assistant  Horticulturist,  University  Farm,  Davis. 
J.  I.  Thompson,  B.S.,  Assistant  Animal  Industry,  Davis. 

Howard  Phillips,  B.S.,  Assistant  Animal  Industry,  Davis. 
J.  C.  Bridwell,  B.S.,  Assistant  Entomologist. 

C.  H.  McCharles,  M.S.,  Assistant  Agricultural  Chemical  Laboratory. 

E.  H.  Smith,  M.S.,  Assistant  Plant  Pathologist. 

C.  O.  Smith,  M.S.,  Assistant  Plant  Pathologist,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 

F.  E.  Johnson,  B.L.,  M.S.,  Assistant  Soil  Chemist. 

B.  A.  Madson,  B.S.A.,  Assistant  Experimental  Agronomist. 

Walter  E.  Packard,  M.S.,  Field  Assistant  Imperial  Valley  Investigation,  El  Centro. 

P.  L.  Hibbard,  B.S.,  Assistant  Fertilizer  Control  Laboratory. 

L.  M.  Davis,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Dairy  Husbandry,  University  Farm,  Davis. 

S.  S.  Rogers,  B.S.,  Assistant  Plant  Pathologist,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 

L.  Bonnet,  Assistant  Viticulturist. 

H.  A.  Ruehe,  B.S.A.,  Assistant  in  Dairy  Husbandry,  University  Farm,  Davis. 

F.  C.  H.  Flossfeder,  Assistant  in  Viticulture,  University  Farm,  Davis. 

S.  D.  Wilkins,  Assistant  in  Poultry  Husbandry,  University  Farm,  Davis. 

C.  L.  Roadhouse,  D.V.M.,  Assistant  in  Veterinary  Science. 

F.  M.  Hayes,  D.V.M.,  Assistant  Veterinarian. 

M.  E.  Stover,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Agricultural  Chemical  Laboratory. 

W.  H.  Volck,  Field  Assistant  in  Entomology,  Watsonville. 

E.  L.  Morris,  Field  Assistant  in  Entomology,  San  Jose. 

E.  E.  Thomas,  B.S.,  Assistant  Chemist,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 

A!  B.  Shaw,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Entomology. 

G.  P.  Gray,  M.S.,  Chemist  in  Insecticides. 

H.   D.   Young,  B.S.,   Assistant  in  Agricultural  Chemistry,   Plant  Disease   Laboratory, 

Whittier. 
A.  R.  Tylor,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Plant  Pathology,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 
E.  W.  Rust,  A.B.,  Assistant  in  Entomology,  Plant  Disease  Laboratory,  Whittier. 
L.  T.  Sharp,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Soils. 
W.  W.  Cruess,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Zymology. 
J.  F.  Mitchell,  D.V.M.,  Assistant  in  Veterinary  Laboratory. 
W.  A.  Boys,  B.S.,  Assistant  in  Agronomy. 

Anna  M.  Lute,  A.B.,   Scientific  Assistant  U.   S.  D.  A.,  Seed  Laboratory. 
J.  C.  Roper,  Patron,  University  Forestry  Station,  Chico. 
E.  C.  Miller,  Foreman,  Forestry  Station,  Chico. 

D.  L.  Bunnell,  Secretary  to  Director. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


These  investigations  were  carried  out  as  part  of  the  general  plan  of 
the  Experiment  Station  for  lima  bean  improvement.  Thanks  are  due  to 
Messrs.  F.  A.  Snyder,  W.  E.  Goodyear,  F.  "VV.  Hooker,  and  Charles  Daily, 
of  Somis ;  Messrs.  James  Leonard,  and  Donlon  Brothers,  of  Oxnard ;  and 
Mr.  T.  F.  McFarland,  of  Hueneme,  who  have  kindly  allowed  the  use  of 
their  fields  for  selection  of  plants;  also  to  Messrs.  F.  A.  Snyder,  W.  E. 
Goodyear,  of  Somis,  James  Leonard,  Donlon  Brothers,  and  the  Patterson 
Ranch  Company,  of  Oxnard,  who  have  given  material  assistance  by 
furnishing  teams  and  labor  and  giving  entertainment  to  the  representa- 
tives of  the  station  while  making  selections  and  harvesting  the  beans. 


4, 

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Fig.  1. — A  typical  pole  lima  bean  plant. 


THE  PRODUCTION  Of  THE  LIMA  BEAN:   THE  NEED  AND 
POSSIBILITY  OE  ITS  IMPROVEMENT. 

By  G.  W.  Shaw  and  M.  E.  Shebwin. 

Classification  and  description  of  the  lima  bean. 

The  lima  bean  (Phaseolus  lunatus)  is  an  annual  plant  of  the  family 
Leguminosce.  The  group  includes  also  clovers,  peas,  beans  and  vetches 
and  many  other  plants  with  the  power  to  assimilate  nitrogen  from  the 
air  through  parasitic  bacteria.  The  name  ''legume"  is  given  to  plants 
of  this  group  because  of  their  characteristic  fruit  case  which  is  a  legume 
or  pod.  Different  genera  of  the  group  vary  in  habit  of  growth  from 
small  herbaceous  plants  to  large  trees.    While  the  lima  bean  plants  are 


Fig.  2. — Typical  bush  form  of  lima  bean.     Variety,  Burpee's  improved. 

all  herbaceous,  they,  too,  vary  greatly  in  size  and  habit  of  growth.  This 
variation  in  growth  is  so  great  as  to  warrant  their  primary  classification 
into  pole  and  bush  forms.  Recognized  types  of  the  bush  forms  are  com- 
paratively recent,  having  been  listed  by  seedmen  only  twenty  years ;  the 
pole  forms  a  much  longer  time. 

The  plant  branches  near  the  ground  from  a  central  stem.  These 
branches  in  the  pole  forms  are  viny  and  twining,  and  are  often  eight 
feet  in  length.     They  can  grow  upward  only  when  provided  with  some 


202 


UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA — EXPERIMENT   STATION. 


support  to  which  they  can  cling.  The  name  "pole"  is  given  because 
poles  are  commonly  placed  as  supports  for  the  vine  or  for  strings  which 
hold  the  vine.  The  branches  of  the  bush  forms  are  very  much  shorter, 
rarely  exceeding  two  feet  in  length,  and  do  not  need  to  be  held  up  by 
artificial  means  in  order  to  grow  upright.  Their  short  and  compact 
habit  of  growth  causes  them  to  be  designated  as  ' '  bush. ' '  Only  the  pole 
forms  are  grown  extensively  in  California,  and  not  being  provided  with 
supports  they  trail  on  the  ground. 


Fig.  3. — Showing  typical  lima  bean  leaves   (one  third  natural  size). 

Pinnate  leaves  with  petioles  several  inches  in  length  are  formed  at 
intervals  along  the  stem,  each  leaf  being  made  up  of  three  ovate,  deltoid, 
acute  leaflets.  Some  varieties  of  limas  have  more  slender  and  acute 
leaflets  than  others,  and  are  called  "Willow  Leaf"  because  of  this 
character.  The  leaflets  appear  either  dull  or  glossy ;  dull  in  the  large, 
flat  lima ;  glossy  in  the  small  flat  lima,  or  ' '  popper. ' ' 


Bulletin  2241  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  LIMA  BEAN. 


203 


Fig.  4. — Showing  character  of  podding  of  large,  flat  lima  bean  of  California 
variety,   Daily ;  one  half  natural  size. 


204  UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

The  inflorescence  is  borne  in  racemes  or  clusters.  Each  liower  is 
white  or  greenish-white,  and  is  about  half  an  inch  across  the  petals. 
The  arrangement  of  the  parts  is  papilionaceous,  characteristic  of  the 
tribe  to  which  the  lima  bean  belongs.  That  is,  three  of  the  petals  form 
a  keel  within  which  the  stamens  and  style  are  spirally  twisted.  The  pod 
is  commonly  about  four  inches  long,  varying,  however,  from  two  to  seven 
inches.  It  is  compressed  and  usually  somewhat  curved  or  scythe-shaped. 
The  number  of  seeds  in  it  vary  from  one  to  seven. 

The  seed  is  kidney-shaped.  Writers  divide  the  limas,  both  pole  and 
bush,  into  three  general  classes,  according  to  size  and  shape  of  seed,  as 
follows : 

(1)  Large  flat  lima  (P.  lunatus  macrocarpus) . 

(2)  Large  thick  lima  (P.  lunatus  macrocarpus) . 

(3)  Small  flat  lima  (P  lunatus). 


Fig.    5. — Lima    Bean    leaves    showing 
venation. 

The  large,  flat-seeded  class  is  grown  almost  exclusively  in  California. 
Minor  differences  in  shape  of  seeds  are  distinctive  enough  to  furnish  a 
basis  on  which  further  classification  or  division  into  varieties  is  made. 
The  shape  of  seed1  is  said  to  be  even  more  constant  in  color  or  plant; 
habit.    It  is  by  shape  of  seed  that  buyers  distinguish  varieties. 

The  roots  extend  to  a  depth  of  three  and  a  half  to  five  or  six  feet.  A 
tap  root  penetrates  nearly  straight  down  to  this  depth  giving  off  smaller 
and  more  fibrous  feeding  rootlets  at  intervals.  On  plants  examined  in 
Ventura  County,  the  number  of  rootlets  did  not  seem  to  be  numerous  at 
any  section  of  the  tap  root.  In  tropical  climates  the  root  is  sometimes 
large  and  fleshy,  and  the  plant  lives  more  than  one  year. 

1Missouri  Botanical  Gardens,  Twelfth  Report  1901. 


Bulletin   224] 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE    LIMA    BEAN. 


I'M. 


PRODUCTION   OF   LIMA   BEANS. 

Nativity. 

The  lima  bean  has  been  supposed  by  different  writers  to  have  origi- 
nated in  the  East  Indies,  Africa,  and  South  America.  Of  these  three 
countries  to  which  its  origination  has  been  credited,  South  America  is 


Fig.  6. — Showing  types  of  lima  bean  seed  found  in  an  Incas  cemetery,  near  Cerro 
Blanco,  Peru   (natural  size). 

now  nearly  determined  as  its  starting  point,  and  it  is  likely  that  it 
originated  in  Peru.  The  beans1  have  been  found  with  the  mummified 
bodies  of  the  Incas  in  Peru,  and  the  plant  has  been  found  growing  wild 
in  Brazil.  Fig.  7  shows  a  number  of  the  beans  found  in  an  Incas  ceme- 
tery near  Cerro  Blanco,  Peru.  Professor  Bailey2  suggests  that  its 
name  is  taken  from  the  city  of  Lima,  capital  of  Peru. 

Geographical  distribution. 

Lima  beans  have  been  known  in  Europe  for  more  than  three  hundred 
years,  but  are  cultivated  in  the  United  States  more  extensively  than  in 
any  other  country,  being  quite  universally  grown  as  a  garden  product. 
Some  market  gardeners  of  the  East  grow  large  quantities,  disposing  of 
them  mostly  as  green  shelled  beans.  California  grows  them  extensively 
as  a  field  crop,  especially  in  Ventura  County,  supplying  the  markets  of 
the  country  with  the  bulk  of  the  dry  shelled  limas.  Other  counties  of 
California  which  grow  them  are  Santa  Barbara,  Los  Angeles,  San  Luis 
Obispo,  Orange,  and  San  Diego.     All  varieties  grown  in  the  United 

'Some  of  the  beans  may  be  seen  in  the  Museum  of  Anthropology  at  the  Affiliated 
Colleges,  San  Francisco. 
'Cornell  Univ.  Bui.   87. 


206  UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

States  have  originated  here.  The  seeds  are  quite  uniformly  white,  while 
foreign  varieties  are  commonly  red,  speckled  or  black.  Many  of  these 
foreign  varieties  are  in  use  in  South  America  and  tropical  countries, 
but  are  not  known  to  the  table  in  this  country.  They  are  generally  late 
maturing  and  strictly  local  varieties. 

Limiting  factors — Climate. 

Severity  of  climate  more  than  any  other  factor  limits  the  production 
of  limas.  All  beans  are  cut  by  frost,  but  limas  are  more  easily  hurt  by 
cold  than  the  common  kidney  bean  (P.  vulgaris) .  It  is  useless  to  plant 
the  former  till  the  ground  becomes  warm  and  in  good  tilth.  If  planted 
earlier  than  this,  the  seed  is  liable  to  rot  before  germination,  and  those 
plants  that  start  will  become  so  stunted  by  cold  as  to  be  small  producers. 
In  the  East  it  is  customary  to  plant  limas  about  ten  days  later  than 
kidney  beans.  In  Ventura  County,  they  are  planted  from  four  days  to 
a  week  later,  but  the  kidney  beans  are  planted  on  the  higher  and  drier 
lands.  As  limas  are  late  maturing  plants,  they  are  often  caught  in  the 
eastern  and  northern  states  by  early  autumn  frost,  which  kills  the  vine ; 
and  in  California  by  early  autumn  rains,  which  injure  or  destroy  a 
portion  of  the  beans  by  wetting  and  subsequent  rotting  in  the  field. 
However,  as  the  pods  begin  to  ripen  a  considerable  time  before  the  plant 
normally  dries  up,  a  fair  crop  may  be  harvested  before  frost  or  rain 
comes  on,  even  though  many  pods  are  still  immature. 

Lima  beans  delight  in  warm,  summer  weather,  but  if  the  relative 
humidity  is  low,  they  suffer  in  consequence.  Bean  growers  in  Ventura 
County  say  that  limas  will ' '  make  a  crop  out  of  fog. ' '  Along  the  coast, 
which  is  the  heaviest  producing  section,  the  fogs  are  remarkably  constant 
in  the  night  and  early  morning,  and  when  for  a  week  or  ten  days  these 
fogs  are  lacking,  the  bean  crop  suffers  markedly.  The  small  pods  which 
are  just  forming  dry  up  and  fall  off  without  making  seed.  The  heavy 
fogs  which  roll  in  may  add  a  little  moisture  to  the  surface  soil  for  a  time, 
but  not  enough  to  reach  the  roots  and  aid  the  plants  directly.  The 
great  benefit  of  the  fog  is  in  lessening  evaporation  and  tempering  the 
atmosphere,  less  water  passing  from  the  plant  into  moist  atmosphere 
than  would  pass  into  dry  atmosphere. 

To  show  the  difference  between  coast  and  valley  conditions,  meteoro- 
logical data  are  given.  Table  I  gives  the  relative  humidity  at  8  a.  m. 
and  8  p.  m.  75th  meridian,  corresponding  to  5  a.  m.  and  5  p.  m.  local 
time,  and  maximum  and  minimum  temperatures  of  Los  Angeles  and 
Fresno  during  the  months  of  May,  June,  July,  and  August,  1908.  Los 
Angeles  is  taken  as  representing  the  atmospheric  conditions  of  the  lima 
bean  section  more  nearly  than  any  other  station  reporting  humidity. 
Probably  the  humidity  of  Ventura  County  coast  region  is  a  trifle  higher. 
In  an  atmosphere  with  relative  humidity  as  low  as  that  of  Fresno,  limas 
are  greatly  injured  at  the  prevailing  temperatures.     Even  along  the 


Bulletin  224] 


THE   PRODUCTION    OF    THE   LIMA   BEAN. 


207 


coast,  a  few  days  of  low  humidity  and  high  temperature,  such  as  the 
period  from  July  16th  to  July  21st,  injures  the  beans,  and  in  the  drier 
soils,  causes  some  dropping  of  pods.  We  have  then,  frost  and  cold 
weather  limiting  the  growth  in  the  eastern  states,  while  low  humidity  of 
atmosphere,  together  with  cold  spring  weather  and  rainy  autumns 
restricts  the  growth  in  California.  It  should  be  noted  here  that  with 
no  summer  rains  the  California-grown  limas,  although  pole  varieties, 
do  not  need  to  be  poled.  The  vines  run  on  the  ground  with  no  damage 
whatever  to  the  beans.  This  is,  of  course,  a  great  saving  of  labor  and 
expense  to  California  growers,  giving  them  a  material  advantage  over 
growers  in  regions  of  summer  rains. 

TABLE  I. 

Showing  mean  relative  humidity  and  maximum  and  minimum  of  interior  valley  and 

southern  coast  section. 


Relative  humidity. 


p.  m. 


Temperature. 


Max. 


Min. 


May,  1908— 

Fresno  County 

Los  Angeles  County 

June,  1908— 

Fresno  County 

Los  Angeles  County 

July,  1908— 

Fresno  County 

Los  Angeles  County 

August,  1908— 

Fresno  County 

Los  Angeles  County 


72.8 


55.4 


35.1 
87. 


54.8 


26.2 
57. 


12.9 


10.5 
54. 


90.6 
73.1 


104.9 
81.2 


99.5 
79.5 


48.4 
50.5 


54.8 
53.1 


68.1 
59.1 


63.5 


Soil. 


The  profitable  production  of  lima  beans  is  limited  to  some  extent  by 
soil,  though  not  so  much  as  by  climate.  Limas  are  grown  on  soil  ranging 
all  the  way  from  sandy  to  adobe.  The  lima  bean  plant,  like  all  other 
Leguminosce,  does  not  grow  well  on  an  acid  soil;  neither  does  it  thrive 
on  an  alkali  soil.  California  soils  being  mostly  arid  or  semi-arid  are 
not  badly  leached,  hence  lime  is  usually  abundant,  insuring  freedom 
from  acidity.  But  the  same  aridity  and  consequent  lack  of  leaching  is 
responsible  for  the  accumulation  in  some  lands  of  considerable  amounts 
of  alkali  salts,  enough  to  limit  the  area  and  the  production  in  the 
counties  where  the  bulk  of  the  limas  is  grown.  The  amount  of  alkali 
which  this  bean  can  endure  and  still  produce  paying  crops  has  not  been 
definitely  determined,  but  it  is  not  high.  However,  experience  has  shown 
that  the  lima  will  bear  more  alkali  than  the  Blackeye,  Lady  Washington, 
or  other  beans  of  the  species  P.  vulgaris,  or  common  kidney  bean.  Not- 
withstanding this  degree  of  alkali  resistance,  many  fields  in  Ventura 


208 


UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


County  which  produce  fair  crops  at  a  good  profit  have  spots  where  the 
plants  have  died  or  languish  because  of  alkali.  About  harvest  time,  in 
looking  over  the  fields,  the  areas  of  heavier  alkali  can  be  distinguished 
by  a  difference  in  color  caused  by  a  slightly  earlier  ripening  of  the 
plants  on  the  alkali  ground. 


Fig.   7. — Showing  effect  of  alkali  upon  lima  bean  plants. 

The  effect  of  alkali  upon  this  plant  is  shown  in  Figs.  8  and  9.  The 
former  shows  individual  bean  plants  from  the  field  illustrated  in  Fig.  9. 
Plant  1  was  taken  from  row  1,  and  plant  2  from  row  3,  and  plant  3 
from  row  5.  The  soil  on  the  left  gradually  increased  in  the  amount  of 
alkali  present,  and  to  the  right  of  row  1  these  salts  were  too  concen- 
trated to  permit  the  growth  of  any  bean  plants  at  all.  The  gradation 
of  the  alkali  in  the  field  is  shown  in  the  following  table : 


Pounds  per  acre  foot. 


Sulfates. 

Carbonates. 

Chlorides. 

Total. 

Number  of  bean  plants  growing .     _ 

j             400 

240 
240 

80 

3820 
1200 
200 

4400 

Bean  plants  very  poor    _     .      __  _  .      _  _ 

i          1200 

264H 

Bean  plants  good . 

i           1600 

1860 

Bulletin  2  24]  THE   PRODUCTION    OF   THE   LIMA   BEAN.  209 

On  another  field,  beans  were  doing  well  on  a  soil  carrying  soluble 
salts  as  follows : 


Pounds  per 
'   acre  foot. 


Sulfates  - 1000 

Carbonates Nil 

Chlorides  1020 


Total 


From  the  above,  it  would  appear  that  the  carbonates  were  the  primary 
limiting  factor,  and  that  the  chlorides  were  second  in  limiting  the 
growth  of  the  plant. 

A  light,  warm,  "quick"  soil  is  desirable  in  order  that  early  planting 
may  be  done  without  danger  of  injury  from  cold,  also  to  avoid  loss  by 
autumn  rains.  More  importance  is  attached  to  this  character  of  the 
soil  in  the  East  than  in  California,  because  of  the  shorter  growing 
season  in  the  East.  Within  the  area  in  California,  where  profitable 
production  is  possible,  different  soils  greatly  influence  the  growth. 
Where  the  water-table  is  at  such  a  level  that  the  plants  send  their  roots 
down  to  the  moisture  which  rises  from  it  by  capillarity,  the  limas  do 
exceedingly  well,  and  are  not  so  badly  affected  by  the  hot  dry  days. 
They  will  endure  very  dry  soil  on  the  surface  after  their  roots  become 
established  below.  The  deep-rooting  habit  of  the  plant  adapts  it  for 
this  condition,  viz.,  dry  surface  with  water-table  a  few  feet  below,  which 
is  the  prevaling  condition  in  part  of  the  Ventura  County  valley  lands. 

The  difference  in  time  of  maturity  is  very  great  between  sandy  and 
clayey  soils,  and  still  greater  between  dry  and  moist  soils.  A  difference 
of  a  week  may  be  observed  in  the  same  field,  due  to  physical  variations 
in  the  soil,  and  much  more  than  this  difference  in  time  has  been  fre- 
quently observed  within  the  distance  of  a  few  miles.  Thus,  on  one  side 
of  El  Rio  de  Santa  Clara,  a  black  adobe  field  ripens  regularly  two  weeks 
later  than  a  lighter  field  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  even  though  both 
fields  are  planted  at  the  same  time;  and  the  same  difference  in  time  is 
seen  between  the  latter  of  these  soils,  which  is  typical  of  soils  around 
Oxnard,  and  the  still  lighter  and  dryer  soils  around  Somis.  Here,  how- 
ever, a  difference  in  time  of  planting  may  be  responsible  for  part  of 
the  difference  in  time  of  ripening.  It  seems  that  the  water  supply  of 
the  soil  more  than  the  texture  is  responsible  for  this  difference  in  time 
of  ripening,  as  irrigation  on  light  soils  causes  the  same  lateness  in 
maturity.  Thus,  we  find  a  tendency  toward  the  perennial  habit  which 
the  plant  maintains  under  the  humid  conditions  of  the  tropics. 

Soils  with  much  nitrogen  tend  toward  late  maturity,  hence  the  limas 
ripen  later  on  land  which  has  been  recently  manured.     On  the  other 


210  UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

hand,  the  mineral  elements  tend  toward  early  maturity.  Limas  require 
a  richer  soil  than  do  the  white  kidney  beans ;  the  pole  varieties  require 
a  richer  soil  than  the  bush  varieties. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  those  soil  conditions  which  tend  to  delay 
ripening  tend  also  to  increase  the  yield  of  beans,  provided,  of  course, 


Fig.  8. — Showing  effect  of  alkali  upon  a  field  of  lima  beans, 
Oxnard,  Cal. 

ripening  is  not  too  long  delayed.  On  these  late  lands  the  plants  begin 
to  ripen  pods  in  nearly  normal  time,  i.  e.,  within  the  season,  but  instead 
of  the  plant  drying  up  at  this  time,  it  continues  to  bloom  and  set  pods. 
The  number  of  early  pods  is  less  than  when  the  whole  plant  prepares 
to  ripen  early,  and  the  first  pods  are  later  than  on  the  early  ripening 
plants. 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OF   THE   LIMA   BEAN.  211 

Climate  and  flora  of  Peru  compared  with  California. 

It  will  be  well  here  to  make  mention  of  conditions  in  Peru  under 
which  the  lima  bean  probably  originated.  We  find  in  Peru  a  remarkable 
likeness  to  California  soil  and  climate.  Although  Peru  is  in  location  a 
tropical  country,  its  climate  is  more  nearly  like  that  of  California  than 
is  the  strictly  tropical  area.  Peru  is  more  temperate  than  its  geograph- 
ical position  indicates.  Along  the  coast  around  Lima  and  to  the  south, 
the  yearly  range  of  relative  humidity  is  from  about  74  to  92.  This  is 
very  like  the  conditions  existing  along  the  California  coast  in  Ventura 
and  adjoining  counties  where  limas  are  so  largely  grown.  The  soil  along 
the  coast  of  Peru  is  so  dry  that  clothing  buried  with  the  bodies  of  the 
Incas  has  not  decomposed  or  lost  its  bright  colors  during  a  period  of 
perhaps  a  thousand  years.  It  is  here  that  seeds  of  corn  and  beans  have 
been  found  in  a  good  state  of  preservation. 

Back  from  the  coast  in  the  foothill  and  mountain  region  there  is 
heavier  rainfall,  supporting  pasture  and  grain  crops.  In  this  section 
the  flora  of  every  zone  is  represented,  from  the  tropical  in  the  deep 
gorges  to  the  Arctic  approaching  the  snow  line.  Above  an  elevation  of 
2,000  feet  potatoes,  beans  and  cereals  are  reported  as  yielding  excellent 
crops. 

As  would  naturally  be  the  case  in  similar  climates  the  flora  of  the  two 
countries  is  much  alike.  And  while  in  the  tropics,  generally,  plants  do 
not  come  to  maturity  readily,  in  Peru  they  mature  as  well  as  in  Cali- 
fornia. Moreover,  maturity  can  be  controlled  in  Peru  by  means  of 
irrigation  as  has  been  mentioned  for  this  state. 

The  Industry  as  practiced  in  California. 

Lima  bean  growing  in  California  started  about  forty  years  ago  in 
the  Carpinteria  Valley.  At  first  it  was  merely  experimental,  but,  being 
highly  successful,  was  taken  up  by  many  farmers.  Its  success  continued, 
the  profits  being  greater  than  from  any  other  crops  previously  grown 
in  the  valley.  This  caused  its  trial  in  other  valleys  and  other  sections 
of  the  State,  but  the  area  of  successful  production  on  a  large  scale 
appeared  limited  to  certain  sections  near  the  place  of  its  original  trial, 
viz.,  the  Carpinteria,  Santa  Clara  of  the  south  and  other  coast  valleys 
of  Ventura  and  Santa  Barbara  counties.  It  was  about  1884  when  the 
successful  growing  of  limas  became  general  in  the  valleys  of  these  two 
counties.  The  reasons  for  general  success  at  this  time  were  two :  first, 
the  cultural  methods  became  more  intensive  with  smaller  farms;  and, 
second,  the  Lewis  variety  of  limas,  selected  about  1888  by  a  man  whose 
name  the  bean  bears,  seemed  better  adapted  to  the  prevailing  conditions 
over  a  large  area  than  other  varieties.  The  area  of  production  is  now 
extending  further  south  into  Los  Angeles,  Orange,  and  San  Diego 
counties.  In  these  counties  the  yield  is  fair;  however,  it  is  not  likely 
that  the  growth  of  limas  will  take  a  place  to  any  great  extent  in  the 


212 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


intensive  farming  already  practiced  in  those  counties,  as  limas  can  not 
replace  the  citrus  and  walnut  orchards.  Nevertheless,  there  are  certain 
areas  of  more  extensively  farmed  land  which  can  be  planted  to  limas 
with  profit,  either  continuously  or  in  rotation  with  the  grain  crops  now 
grown. 

Following  is  an  outline  of  the  cultural  methods  practiced  in  Ventura 
County.    Methods  here  are  typical  of  the  whole  region. 

Preparation  of  the  soil. 

This  is  thoroughly  done,  the  growers  having  learned  by  practice  that 
good  preparation  pays ;  in  fact,  very  much  more  cultivation  is  given  the 
soil  before  seeding  than  after.  The  land  is  plowed  preferably  as  early 
as  possible  in  the  fall,  i.  e.,  immediately  following  the  first  fall  rains. 


Fig. 


-A  chisel  cultivator  used  in  preparation  of  land  for  lima  bean  seeding. 


This  puts  it  in  condition  to  absorb  all  the  rain  which  subsequently  falls. 
Plowing  is  done  to  a  depth  of  eight  inches,  and  land  is  left  without 
further  working  till  most  of  the  winter  rain  has  fallen — about  February 
1st.  A  few  fields  are  given  a  shallow  plowing  in  the  fall,  and  a  deeper 
plowing  after  the  winter  rains.  As  early  as  the  ground  is  dry  enough 
it  is  worked  twice  with  a  chisel  (see  Fig.  10).  As  will  be  seen  in  the 
figure,  the  chisel  is  a  cultivator  with  many  arched  narrow  teeth,  or 
shovels,  each  of  which  is  called  a  chisel,  arranged  in  regular  order  on  a 
frame,  the  frame  being  supported  on  wheels.  Levers  are  provided  to 
raise  and  lower  the  chisels  at  will.  These  chisels  penetrate  the  ground, 
which  by  this  time  is  rather  compacted,  tearing  up  the  weeds  and 
loosening  the  surface  of  the  soil.    From  now  till  planting  time  a  surface 


Bulletin  2  24] 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE    LIMA    BEAN. 


213 


mulch  of  dry  loose  soil  is  maintained  to  lessen  evaporation.  The  imple- 
ment used  for  this  is  a  cyclone  (Fig.  11).  This  consists  essentially 
of  a  plank  frame  set  flat  with  its  lower  front  edge  beveled,  the  plank 
having  cross  pieces  on  top  to  each  of  which  a  steel  knife  is  bolted.  The 
knives  are  uniformly  set  with  the  cutting  edge  lower  than  the  blunt 
edge  at  an  angle  from  both  vertical  and  horizontal.  They  extend  back 
and  down,  and  are  then  bent  toward  the  middle  of  the  implement,  form- 
ing on  the  inner  side  an  acute  angle  with  the  line  of  the  long  plank 
frame.    It  will  be  noticed  that  this  knife,  set  at  an  angle,  is  a  feature 


Fig.   10. — The  cyclone  cultivator  used  in  the  preparation  of  land  for  lima  beans. 

of  nearly  all  the  cultivating  implements  in  use,  also  of  the  cutters  men- 
tioned later.  This  implement  cuts  off  the  weeds  just  below  the  surface, 
mashes  the  clods  and  pulverizes  the  surface  soil.  It  is  used  at  intervals 
from  four  to  six  times  before  the  beans  are  planted.  This  conserves  the 
soil  moisture,  compacts  the  lower  soil  layer,  and  gives  a  loose,  mellow 
surface  layer — an  ideal  seed  bed.  Such  cultivation  is  necessary  because 
no  rain  ordinarily  falls  between  planting  and  harvesting  of  the  crop. 
The  same  effect  is  often  secured  by  the  use  of  the  spring-tooth  harrow. 

Planting. 

Planting  is  done  from  May  1st  to  May  25th,  at  the  rate  of  forty-five 
to  sixty-five  pounds  per  acre,  according  to  the  moisture  condition  and 
fertility  of  the  soil.  The  beans  are  planted  in  rows  thirty  to  thirty-six 
inches  apart,  eight  to  twelve  inches  apart  in  the  row,  a  single  seed 
being  dropped  in  a  place.  On  the  heavier  and  more  moist  soils,  where 
the  growth  of  vines  is  rank,  the  wider  distances  are  given  between  rows. 
There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  best  distance  apart  to  have 
2— bul  224 


214 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


the  rows,  but  it  is  agreed  that  they  should  be  closer  than  on  the  lighter 
soils.  Where  results  on  the  light  soils  have  been  carefully  compared 
with  results  on  heavy  and  irrigated  or  moist  soils,  the  wider  distance 
mentioned  seems  best  both  between  rows  and  between  plants  in  the  row. 


Fig.  11. — A  planting  scene  at  the  Dixie  Thompson  ranch  ;  160  acres  are  seeded  per  day. 

The  writer  has  had  his  attention  called  to  fields  bearing  a  very  heavy 
crop  of  beans  which  had  so  great  distance  between  plants  in  the  row 
that  the  grower  had  been  in  doubt  in  the  spring  whether  to  leave  the 
field  as  it  was  or  replant  it.    Yet  it  is  almost  certain  that  a  greater  yield 


i — . — —» — ■ 

...  .  ■"• 

Fig.  12.— The  type  of  lima  bean  seeder  used  in  Ventura  County,  California. 

v/as  obtained  than  if  the  stand  of  plants  had  been  what  is  considered 
perfect.  This  conclusion  is  based  on  the  fact  that  other  fields  adjoining, 
with  no  apparent  difference  in  soil  or  culture  conditions,  except  thicker, 
and  hence  "better"  stand,  did  not  give  as  high  a  yield  of  beans.  The 
best  rate  of  planting  is  possibly  influenced  by  the  variety  of  beans 


Bulletin  224] 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE   LIMA   BEAN. 


215 


planted,  but  this  influence  is  small  among  the  varieties  extensively 
grown.  However,  the  amount  of  water  applied  in  irrigation  does 
influence  it  considerably. 

Seed  is  put  in  with  the  type  of  planter  shown  in  Fig.  13.  Two  inches  in 
the  moist  soil  are  considered  the  best  depth  of  planting.  Some  planters 
are  furnished  with  horizontal  revolving  plates  in  the  bottom  of  the  seed 
box,  having  holes  through  which  the  beans  drop  into  the  tube  leading 
to  the  shoe.  By  using  sets  of  plates  having  different  numbers  of  holes, 
the  intervals  between  dropping  of  the  single  seeds  ,and  hence  the  distance 
between  plants  in  the  row,  can  be  regulated.  The  plate  is  simlar  to  a 
corn  planter  plate.  Other  planters  are  provided  with  shallow  cups  or 
projections  with  one  surface  concave,  arranged  on  an  endless  chain. 
When  the  planter  is  in  motion,  the  chain  moves  upward  through  the 
bean  hopper,  and,  catching  one  bean  in  the  concave  surface,  drops  it  on 
turning  to  complete  the  circuit  so  that  it  falls  into  the  tube  and  through 
the  shoe  to  the  ground.  Obviously  the  number  of  cups  on  the  chain  and 
its  speed  regulate  the  distance  between  seeds  in  the  row.  The  cups  are 
made  to  carry  only  one  bean  at  a  time. 

Cultivation. 

The  beans  are  cultivated  while  young,  one,  two  or  three  times,  the 
average  number  of  cultivations  being  two  or  a  little  more.     The  fields 


Fig.  13. — Showing  type  of  cultivator  most  commonly  used  for  the  lima  bean  crop. 

are  ordinarily  kept  free  from  weeds  from  the  time  of  chiseling  in  the 
winter  till  the  vines  cover  the  ground.  Cultivation  must  cease  when 
the  vines  get  large,  as  not  being  provided  with  supports  they  spread 
across  the  row  and  would  be  badly  injured  by  the  passage  of  the  culti- 


21  6  I    \  I V  ERSITY    OF    CALTFOKN  [A — EXPER  [  M  E3NT    STATION. 

vator.  After  the  vines  have  made  such  a  growth  as  to  practically  cover 
the  ground,  the  mulch  is  not  so  much  needed  to  prevent  evaporation. 
The  long  vines  are  also  of  benefit  on  some  lands  to  prevent  excessive  rise 
of  alkali  salts. 

One  type  of  cultivator  is  shown  in  Fig.  14.  This  has  the  characteristic 
diagonal  or  V-shaped  knives.  Some  cultivators  have  one  large  V  replac- 
ing the  two  small  ones  in  the  middle,  as  shown  in  the  figure.  This 
implement  cultivates  two  rows  at  a  time.  The  knives  can  be  raised  and 
lowered  by  levers,  and  are  usually  set  to  run  about  an  inch  below  the 
surface  of  the  soil.  This  cuts  the  wTeeds,  leaving  them  standing  in  place, 
but  the  surface  soil  being  entirely  dry  they  soon  wilt  and  die,  whereas 
if  turned  up  with  an  amount  of  moist  soil,  as  is  often  done  with  shovel 
cultivators,  some  of  the  w^eeds  are  merely  transplanted.  Any  weeds  left 
in  the  rows  and  those  which  start  after  cultivation  ceases  are  cut  with 
a  hoe. 

Irrigation. 

As  has  already  been  said,  there  is  normally  no  rain  on  the  bean  crop 
from  planting  till  harvest,  the  ground,  of  course,  becoming  very  dry. 
Hence  irrigation  has  been  found  profitable,  the  production  in  many 
fields  being  doubled  by  the  use  of  water.  The  most  common  method  of 
irrigation  is  by  the  row  system.  Furrows  are  made  between  all  the  rows 
with  an  implement  carrying  four  broad  shovels,  furrowing  between 
four  rows  at  a  time.  Water  is  run  in  these  furrows  for  the  desired  time, 
after  which  the  land  is  leveled  by  a  shallow  cultivation.  This  prevents 
excessive  evaporation  which  would  take  place  if  the  furrows  were 
allowed  to  bake  in  the  sun.  Usually  only  one  irrigation  is  given,  and 
that  about  July  1st,  just  before  cultivation  ceases.  Two  and  one  half 
to  three  acre-inches  per  acre  are  applied  at  this  time. 

A  few  fields  are  subirrigated  by  seepage  from  ditches  around  the 
fields.  One  ranch  which  uses  this  method  irrigated  three  times,  keeping 
water  in  the  ditches  two  weeks  at  a  time,  with  two  weeks  intervening 
between  irrigations.    The  yield  is  very  satisfactory. 

All  irrigation  water  comes  from  wells  averaging  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  in  depth.  Some  of  these  are  flowing ;  in  others,  the  water 
comes  close  to  the  surface.  Gasoline  engines  are  used  to  furnish  power 
in  pumping  water  over  the  field. 

Harvesting  and  caring  for  the  crop. 

In  the  sections  of  light  and  unirrigated  land,  the  beans  ripen  from 
August  20th  to  September  10th.  In  the  irrigated  portions  and  on 
heavier  land,  they  ripen  from  September  10th  to  September  25th  or 
October  1st.  These  dates  indicate  the  time  the  beans  are  harvested. 
Before  the  earliest  date  for  each  section  there  will  be  some  dry  pods  in 


BULLKTIX     2  24] 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE    LIMA   BEAN. 


217 


all  the  fields  and  at  the  latest  date  of  harvest  there  are  always  green 
pods.  Early  ripening  fields  usually  get  drier  before  being  harvested 
than  the  late  ripening  fields,  as  the  cutting  in  the  late  fields  is  com- 
menced before  the  beans  are  well  ripened  in  order  to  get  the  beans  out 
of  danger  of  rain. 

When  bean  growing  in  California  was  begun  on  a  commercial  scale, 
the  plants  were  pulled  at  harvest  time  by  Chinamen  by  means  of  a 
hook.  This,  however,  was  very  slow  and  laborious,  and  cutters  were 
made  so  that  harvesting  could  be  done  by  horse  power.     A  sled  cutter 


Fig.  14. — Showing-  sled  cutter  for  harvesting  lima  beans. 

is  shown  in  Fig.  15.  The  original  cutter  and  the  one  most  largely  used 
at  present  is  a  sled  with  two  runners  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  high.  On 
the  inner  side  of  each  a  knife  is  set  diagonally  backward  and  toward 
the  middle  of  the  sled.  A  few  inches  above  each  knife  is  a  bar  of  iron 
or  wood  set  in  a  similar  position.  The  sled  runners  are  such  a  distance 
apart  that  two  rows  of  beans  will  pass  between  them.  Hence  each 
knife  is  drawn  along  the  line  of  the  row  cutting  the  plants  just  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  diagonal  position  of  the  knife  causes 
it  to  cut  the  plants  clean  without  pulling  up  by  the  roots,  and  together 
with  the  diagonal  bar  above,  pushes  both  rows  to  the  middle,  leaving 
them  together  in  a  windrow. 

These  cutters  are  often  mounted  on  wheels  (see  Fig.  16)  to  bear  the 


218 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


main  weight  of  the  sled  and  driver,  the  runner  cutting  into  the  ground 
just  enough  to  hold  it  firmly  to  the  row.  Levers  are  provided  to  raise 
and  lower  the  frame  of  the  sled.  A  man  with  two  or  three  horses, 
usually  three,  cuts  from  eight  to  twelve  and  one  half  acres  a  day.  The 
claim  is  made  that  two  horses  on  a  wheeled  cutter  can  get  over  as  much 
ground  and  do  it  as  easily  as  three  on  a  sled  cutter.  But  greater  care 
has  to  be  taken  in  driving  to  keep  the  wheeled  cutter  to  the  row,  hence 
with  the  class  of  labor  usually  obtainable,  the  sled  cutter  does  better 
work,  and  is  for  this  reason  more  desirable. 


__^^tt^Kff(^^A  %w 

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3fr£ 

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f .   '         V. 

Fig.  15. — Lima  bean  harvester  or  cutter  on  wheels. 

The  vines,  after  lying  in  windrows,  as  left  by  the  cutter,  for  a  few 
hours,  are  piled  by  hand  with  pitchforks.  Three  windrows  are  com- 
monly placed  together  in  one  row  of  piles.  Piles  are  four  or  five  feet 
in  diameter  on  the  ground  and  three  feet  high.  They  remain  in  these 
piles  till  very  dry,  which  is  a  length  of  time  varying  with  the  weather 
and  the  maturity  of  the  beans,  but  usually  from  two  to  three  weeks. 
They  seem  to  dry  better  if  the  leaves  are  not  allowed  to  dry  by  direct 
sun  before  piling.  The  explanation  is  that  the  leaves,  on  drying  by 
direct  sun,  become  unable  to  transpire  the  moisture  of  the  plant  as 
readily  as  when  slowly  cured  in  the  pile.  It  is  said  that  vines  will  be 
dry  enough  to  thresh  if  placed  immediately  in  piles  quicker  than  if  left 
in  small  windrows.  The  vine  gives  up  its  moisture  very  slowly  except 
when  evaporated  through  the  leaves. 

A  man  is  expected  to  pile  about  five  acres  a  day,  but  frequently  does 
not  pile  more  than  two  or  three.  It  requires  from  two  to  three  men  to 
handle  the  beans  cut  with  one  sled.    Japanese  and  Mexican  laborers  are 


Bulletin   2  2  4]  THE   PRODUCTION    OF   THE   LIMA   BEAN.  219 

largely  used  for  this,  though  not  exclusively.  The  advantage  of  having 
this  class  of  labor  is  that  they  board  themselves  on  the  ranch,  and  can 
be  more  depended  on  to  do  a  good  day's  work  than  the  transient  class 
of  white  labor.  Japanese  contractors  usually  agree  to  furnish  the  labor 
for  a  specified  rate  per  day  for  each  man  in  the  field,  the  contractors 
taking  a  certain  amount,  usually  ten  cents  per  day  per  man,  for  their 
services,  turning  the  balance  over  to  the  laborers.  This  saves  the  grower 
the  trouble  of  looking  up  individual  laborers. 

Threshing  and  recleaning. 

Threshing  is  done  by  itinerant  machines,  using  for  power  either  steam 
or  gasoline  engines.  The  machines  thresh  from  one  thousand  to  twenty- 
five  hundreds  sacks  per  day,  fifteen  hundred  being  a  fair  day's  work. 


Wk^^^K/B^SSm 

*w» 

■i 

Fig.  16. — Threshing  lima  beans  on  the  Dixie  Thompson  ranch,  Ventura,  Cal. 

In  a  few  instances  about  three  thousand  sacks  have  been  threshed  in  a 
day.  The  charge  is  usually  twenty-five  cents  a  hundred  pounds,  equal 
to  twenty  cents  a  sack.  For  small  jobs  in  out-of-the-way  places,  this 
charge  is  exceeded  by  as  much  as  fifteen  cents  a  hundred  pounds.  This 
pays  for  the  hauling  of  beans  from  the  field  to  the  machine  and  labor  of 
sacking ;  in  fact,  all  labor  connected  with  threshing,  except  that  of  haul- 
ing the  threshed  beans  to  storage. 

The  general  construction  of  the  threshing  machines  is  the  same  as  of 
the  itinerant  machines  used  in  threshing  cereals.  The  bean  threshers, 
however,  have  three  cylinders  which  are  run  at  a  speed  of  280  to  350 
revolutions  per  minute  instead  of  a  single  cylinder  running  at  the  speed 
of  1.100  revolutions  per  minute.  The  cylinder  teeth  are  set  to  run  five 
eighths  of  an  inch  from  the  teeth  of  the  concave  as  against  three  eighths 
in  cereal  threshers.  The  use  of  three  cylinders  with  teeth  set  five  eighths 
of  an  inch  from  the  teeth  of  the  concave  avoids  an  excessive  breaking  and 
splitting  of  the  beans  which  would  occur  with  the  single  cylinder 
running  at  high  speed  with  teeth  set  close.    When  a  single  cylinder  is 


220  UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA— EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

used  the  number  of  teeth  is  reduced  about  two  thirds.  There  is  a 
difference  in  ease  of  threshing  different  varieties,  but  a  bean  hard  to 
thresh  is  said  not  to  split  any  worse  than  a  bean  easy  to  thresh.  The 
amount  of  ' '  splits ' '  is  due  to  the  management  of  the  machine. 

The  beans  are  stored  in  large  warehouses  until  marketed,  and  are 
generally  recleaned.  Formerly  hand  picking  was  the  common  practice 
in  recleaning,  but  a  few  years  ago  a  mechanical  recleaner  which  is  very 
satisfactory  was  invented.  The  novelty  of  the  machine  is  its  simplicity, 
the  part  performing  the  work  which  formerly  required  hand  picking, 
that  of  removing  the  "splits"  being  merely  two  rubber  covered  rollers 
or  cylinders  about  two  feet  in  diameater  and  supported  at  a  slight  angle 
from  horizontal.  The  rollers  are  near  together,  being  separated  only 
by  a  small  ridge  or  peak  of  wood  at  the  place  of  nearest  contact.  It  is 
over  this  dividing  ridge  that  the  beans  slide  on  to  the  rollers.  The 
rubber  covering  the  rollers  is  rough  so  that  the  split  beans  being  flat 
remain  on  it  and  are  carried  over  the  top,  being  dropped  in  a  trough 
on  the  outside  as  the  rollers  slowly  revolve  away  from  each  other;  the 
whole  being  received  at  the  end  on  screens  which  separate  out  the  trash 
and  immature  beans.  No  other  device  than  this  rubber  covered  roller 
has  ever  been  made  which  will  as  effectually  remove  the  ' '  splits. ' ? 

Yield  and  value  of  crops. 

As  stated  above,  the  production  of  lima  beans  is  restricted  to  a  com- 
paratively small  area,  the  center  of  which  is  in  Ventura  County.  The 
following,  which  is  a  portion  of  an  article  clipped  from  the  Ventura 
Daily  Democrat,  gives  the  acreage  and  yield  of  lima  beans  in  Ventura 
County  in  1908. 

"Experimentation  in  various  crops  continued  until  the  middle 
eighties  some  one  tried  the  growing  of  lima  beans.  The  effera  was 
entirely  successful,  and  to-day  Ventura  is  known  through  the  world 
as  the  'bean  county.'  She  raises  three  fourths  of  the  lima  beans 
of  the  world.  On  60,000  acres  last  year  there  were  raised  825,000 
sacks  of  limas  of  eighty  pounds  each  now  selling  at  4  cents  per 
pound. ' ' 

The  production,   1908,  of  the   State  and  of  certain  counties  is   as 
follows : 

Sacks. 


Ventura  County  834,000 


Santa  Barbara  County 

Los  Angeles,  Orange  and  other  counties. 


Total 


45,000 
225,000 


1,099,000' 


Bulletin  224] 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE    LIMA   BEAN. 


221 


The  figures  for  the  lima  bean  crop  of  1910,  as  furnished  by  Mr.  Water- 
man, manager  of  the  Lima  Bean  Growers'  Association,  are  as  follows: 


Sacks. 


Ventura  County  

Orange  County  

Santa  Barbara  County 
Los  Angeles  County  __. 
San  Diego  County 


800,000 
150,000 
75,000 
75,000 
60,000 


Total 


1,160,000 


The  above  represents  a  total  acreage  of  about  82,850  acres  devoted  to 
this  crop. 

The  weight  of  limas  per  sack  is  eighty  pounds;  formerly  eighty-two 
pounds.  The  average  yield  is  about  fourteen  sacks  per  acre,  or  about 
eleven  hundred  and  twenty  pounds.  Some  fields  produce  nearly  three 
times  this  amount,  but  in  the  best  section  an  average  of  twenty-five  sacks 
or  two  thousand  pounds  per  acre  is  considered  satisfactory. 

Cost  of  production. 

It  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  a  definite  figure  as  to  the  average  cost  of 
production,  but  an  approximate  figure  may  be  obtained  from  the  expense 
account  of  one  ranch  operating  in  a  large  way  at  Oxnard. 


1910. 
750  acres . 


1909. 
680  acres . 


Preparation  of  land,  per  acre 

Seed   

Hand  cleaning  seed 

Planting    

Care  of  crop 

Threshing   

Sacks  and  twine 

Recleaning  and  storage  

^Turning    


$6.63 

3.00 

.20 

.35 

2.35 

2.65 

.70 

1.00 

.50 

$17.35 

£5.92 
4.50 


1.75 
4.30 
1.15 

.85 


The  above  figures  will  doubtless  represent  a  fair  average  when  one 
is  operating  in  a  large  way.  It  is  probable  that  about  $18.00  per  acre 
will  represent  nearly  the  average  cost  of  production,  taking  one  year 
with  another.  On  small  places,  where  the  cultivation  is  more  intense, 
the  cost  of  production  may  run  $25.00,  but  the  yields  are  more  than 
proportionately  increased. 

The  bean  straw  valuable. 

Another  factor  which  is  of  importance  and  which  has  only  recently 
come  to  be  appreciated,  is  the  value  of  the  bean  straw  as  rough  feed. 
Formerly  this  straw  was  nearly  all  burned  or  allowed  to  rot  in  large 

irThis  was  an  extra  expense  due  to  rain. 


222 


UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


piles  or  used  as  a  "fill"  for  ditches.  Some  years  ago,  certain  published 
analyses1  brought  attention  to  the  real  nutritive  value  of  the  straw, 
probably  starting  its  use  in  a  small  way.  However,  the  demand  for  it 
has  never  been  great  nor  the  price  per  ton  as  high  as  seems  warranted 
by  its  composition  when  compared  with  other  hay.  For  the  small 
amount  sold,  the  price  received  is  usually  five  dollars  a  ton,  baled.  The 
highest  price  received  is  eight  dollars  a  ton,  which,  due  to  the  scarcity 
and  extremely  high  price  of  other  hay,  is  now  (1909)  being  paid.  The 
yield  is  about  equal  to  the  weight  of  beans,  or  one  ton  per  aci*e  on  the 
better  land.  Hence  the  price  per  ton  may  be  considered  as  its  value  per 
acre.  Of  course,  considerable  more  of  this  bean  straw  is  eaten  by  stock 
than  is  sold,  and  in  this  case  its  full  value  is  received.  It  is  generally 
regarded  that  the  straw  is  worth  about  $1.00  per  ton  in  the  field,  loose. 
Below  are  some  analyses,  part  of  which  have  heretofore  been  unpub- 
lished. Note  especially  that  the  amount  of  digestible  nutriment  in  100 
pounds  of  lima  bean  straw  is  almost  equal  to  that  in  the  same  weight  of 
average  barley  hay,  and  that  the  nutritive  ratio  shows  lima  bean  straw 
to  be  more  nearly  a  balanced  ration.  Analysis  of  alfalfa  hay  is  included 
in  the  tables  for  comparison. 

^Analyses  of  Lima  Bean  Straw,  Barley  and  Alfalfa  Hay. 


Lima  bean  straw. 

2  Common 
barley  hay. 

2Alfalfa 

I. 

II. 

■m. 

hay. 

Water   _ 

11.00 

5.78 

1.94 

47.20 

26.13 

7.95 

14.00 

5.22 

.74 

39.60 

36.14 

4.30 

10.00 
10.72 

1.92 
46.66 
21.14 

9.56 

6.44 
11.11 

2.38 
50.37 
22.55 

7.15 

10.95 

Protein ~ 

17.60 

Pat   _  _ — 

3.08 

Carbohydrates 

39.31 

Crude  fiber .. 

22.63 

Ash    

6.43 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

Wry  Matter  and  Digestible  Nutrients  in  100  Pounds. 


Lima  bean 
straw. 

Barley  hay 
average. 

Alfalfa 
hay. 

Dry  matter  in  100  pounds 

90.0  lbs. 

5.4  lbs. 

38.8  lbs. 

1.2  lbs. 

1:7.7 

91.5  lbs. 

5.8  lbs. 

43.1  lbs. 

1.6  lbs. 

1:" 

89.1  lbs. 

Digestible  nutrients  in  100  pounds — 

Protein    .  __ __  _ 

12.3  lbs. 

Carbohydrates    _- 

37.1  lbs. 

Pat    ..      

1.6  lbs. 

Nutritive  ratio 

1:3.3 

Four  cents  a  pound  may  be  considered  as  an  average  price  for  the 
crop  for  years  past,  although  frequently  it  rises  to  above  five.     This 


Calif.  Agric.  Exp.   Station,   Bui.   132. 

1  Analyses  by  Professor  M.  E.  Jaffa. 

California  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Bulletin  132. 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION  OP   THE  LIMA  BEAN.  223 

gives  an  average  gross  value  of  $45.00  per  acre  for  the  beans.  Adding 
to  this  $1.00  per  acre  for  the  value  of  the  straw,  gives  a  total  of  $46.00 
per  acre.  The  total  cost  of  producing  a  crop  is  from  $20.00  to  $25.00 
an  acre,  depending  partly  upon  whether  or  not  irrigation  is  used.  The 
average  total  cost  of  production  is  probably  less  than  $20.00  an  acre, 
leaving  an  average  of  at  least  $26.00  net  to  the  grower. 

Value  of  land. 

It  is  this  annual  net  profit  of  $26.00  an  acre  which  is  obtained  from 
large  fields  without  truly  intensive  culture  and  without  technical  knowl- 
edge of  the  industry  that  gives  land  its  present  value.  Land  adapted 
to  lima  bean  growing  sells  for  from  $250.00  to  $500.00  an  acre  without 
buildings,  and  even  higher  prices  have  been  refused  for  fields  to  which 
the  writer's  attention  has  been  called.  These  prices  are  justified,  and 
are  most  quickly  paid  by  those  farmers,  who,  having  lived  in  that  section, 
know  by  experience  what  the  land  will  produce. 

Rotation. 

Generally  speaking,  there  has  been  little  call,  as  yet,  for  rotation 
crops  on  the  lands  devoted  to  lima  bean  production.  In  most  cases  there 
seems  to  have  been  an  increased  productiveness,  such  as  one  might  expect 
from  the  fact  that  the  beans,  as  in  the  case  of  all  plants  of  the  legumi- 
nosse  are  in  themselves  fertilizers,  owing  to  their  peculiar  habit  of  fixing 
riitrogen  from  the  air.  The  effect  of  their  increased  fertility  is  partic- 
ularly noticed  with  grain  or  hay  crops  following  on  land  that  has  been 
devoted  to  limas.  The  effect  of  deep  preparation  of  the  soil,  clean, 
thorough  culture,  and  nitrogen-fixing  character  of  the  plant,  has  been 
towards  increased  fertility  of  these  lands.  The  time  will  doubtless  come, 
however,  when  crop  rotation,  or  the  use  of  mineral  fertilizers  is 
demanded  to  account  for  the  gradual  drain  upon  the  potash  and  phos- 
phoric acid.  To  some  extent,  beans  are  rotated  with  the  sugar  beet  on 
the  medium  heavy  soils,  but  usually  to  the  expense  of  the  bean  crop,  but 
with  benefit  to  the  beet  crop.  The  only  condition  under  which  the  bean 
crop  seems  to  have  benefited,  is  upon  fields  which  were  formerly  too 
strongly  impregnated  with  soluble  salts  to  allow  of  successful  bean 
culture.  Sugar  beets  upon  such  lands  gradually  reduce  the  alkali 
content. 

Implements  used. 

The  implements  and  machinery  used  in  the  lima  bean  industry  have 
largely  been  perfected  in  the  lima  bean  region  of  California.  The 
object  here  has  always  been  to  overcome  the  defects  of  eastern  implements 
in  lightness  of  construction,  and  to  minimize  hand  work.  How  well  they 
have  succeeded  in  doing  away  with  hand  work  may  be  seen  from  the 
fact  that  one  man  can  care  for  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  acres 
with  extra  help  for  a  few  days  at  hoeing  and  harvest  seasons.     To 


224 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA — EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


avoid  defects  of  eastern  manufactured  implements  and  get  implements 
adapted  to  the  local  soils,  most  farmers  use  implements  made  in  local 
shops.  General  mention  of  these  has  been  made  under  the  various 
cultural  operations. 

Varieties. 

As  stated  in  previous  pages,  the  pole  type  of  lima  is  the  one  almost 
exclusively  grown  in  California.  The  commercial  bean  is  mainly  of  two 
varieties  of  local  selection,  viz.,  the  Daily  and  the  Lewis.  One  of  the 
principal  dealers  in  seed  limas  estimates  that  in  Ventura  County  the 
Lewis  type  comprises  from  two  thirds  to  three  fourths  of  the  total  acre- 
age and  the  Daily  about  one  fourth  to  one  third.     Other  types  are 

almost  a  negligible  quantity. 
The  former  variety,  developed 
by  Mr.  Joe  Lewis,  of  Camarillo, 
is  a  somewhat  smaller  bean  in 
size,  less  vining  in  its  habit  and 
matures  earlier,  and  many  think 
it  more  prolific.  It  certainly 
seems  to  be  better  adapted  to 
moist  lands  and  to  localities 
where  beans  have  a  tendency  to 
ripen  late.  This  renders  it  bet- 
ter adapted  for  use  under  irri- 
gated conditions.  This  bean  has 
much  the  wider  use  near  the 
coast,  where  the  general  tend- 
ency is  toward  late  maturity. 

The  Daily  bean  was  selected 
by  Mr.  Chas.  Daily,  of  Somis. 
It  is  of  more  recent  origin  than 
the  Lewis  type.  It  is  a  vigorous 
grower  and  has  a  heavy  twining 
character,  the  runners  them- 
selves setting  more  heavily  thaii 
the  Lewis  type.  It  is  better 
adapted  to  the  regions  further 
from  the  coast.  Under  the  pres- 
ent conditions  it  would  probably 
be  an  advantage  to  growers  near  the  coast  to  secure  for  their  seed  the 
Lewis  type,  which  lias  been  grown  further  inland,  as  the  tendency  will  be 
toward  earlier  ripening,  although  the  development  of  an  earlier  matur- 
ing type  in  the  coast  region  would  be  of  much  more  permanent  worth. 

The  King  of  the  Garden  variety  was  formerly  grown  quite  exten- 
sively, but  it  has  gradually  given  place  to  the  former  types.     It  is  said 


Fig 


typical    pod 
pole-lima. 


Daily 


Bulletin  224  I 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE    1,1  MA    BEAN. 


225 


THE   KINO  OF 
GARDEN   LIMA,— 

from  a 
Photograph. 


to  be  a  cross  between  the  Large  White  lima  and  Dreer's  Improved.  This 
variety  is  medium  early,  a  very  vigorous  and  prolific  one,  but  it  is  open 
to  the  objection  of  being  tenacious  in  the  pod,  thus  being  more  difficult 
to  thresh.  The  loss  from  splitting  of  the  beans 
is  large.  The  beans  are  large,  kidney  shaped, 
and  of  excellent  quality.  The  pods  are  from 
5  to  b\}  inches  in  length.  Were  it  not  for  the 
difficulty  in  threshing,  it  would  be  a  strong 
rival  to  the  Daily. 

A  number  of  promising  new  local  types  have 
recently  been  developed,  but  have  not,  as  yet, 
come  into  general  use.  Among  them  may  be 
mentioned  the  following: 

The  monstrous  bush  lima. 

This  type  was  selected  from  the  ranch  of 
Mr.  A.  J.  Young,  in  Orange  County,  in  1905, 
and  introduced  by  Aggeler  and  Musser  of  Los 
Angeles,  in  1908.  It  is  a  very  large  bean  with 
a  rich,  nutty  flavor.  The  bean  seems  to  be 
quite  hardy,  for  Mr.  W.  H.  Brown,  of  Orange 
County,  states  that  his  vines  survived  the  win- 
ter, and  that  he  sold  beans  from  his  old  vines 
early  in  June  of  the  following  year.  On  ac- ' 
count  of  the  extreme  growing  habits  of  this 
bean,  it  is  recommended  to  plant  rows  eight 
feet  apart,  six  feet  between  plants  in  the  row. 
On  speaking  of  this  bean,  Mr.  L.  F.  Johnson, 
of  Long  Beach,  California,  says:  "I  thought 
you  wTere  exaggerating  when  you  told  me  to 
plant  them  six  by  eight  feet.  I  planted  them 
3  by  -4  feet,  and  now  I  have  a  field  of  vines 
too  much  shaded  to  bear  a  big  crop." 

Carpinteria. 

This  is  one  of  the  new  types  and  was  devel- 
oped by  Mr.  Henry  Fish,  of  Carpinteria.  Its 
distinctive  character  is  the  decidedly  green  tint 
of  the  bean,  which  it  retains  even  in  the  dry 
state.  It  is  said  to  be  a  strong,  vigorous 
grower,  and  as  prolific  as  the  white  limas.  It 
produces  long  runners,  which  pod  heavily.  The  bean  itself  is  broad  and 
thicker  than  the  ordinary  sorts.  This  type  is  being  introduced  by 
Vaughn's  Seed  House,  Chicago. 


Fig.    18. 


226 


UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


Burpee's  giant  podded  lima. 

This  is  a  late  introduction,  which  seems  to  be  meeting  with  some  favor. 
It  is  said  to  be  earlier  than  King  of  the  Garden.  The  vines  are  excep- 
tionally vigorous  growers  and  attain  a  length  of  8  to  12  feet,  and  them- 
selves produce  many  laterals  which  are  productive.     The  pods  are 


Fig.  19. — The  Fordhook  bush 
lima    (natural  size). 


Fig.    20. — Burpee's  improved  bush 
lima   (natural  size). 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION  OF   THE  LIMA  BEAN.  227 

exceptionally  large,  often  measuring  7  to  8  inches,  and  1J  inches  in 
width.  The  beans  themselves  are  nearly  as  thick  as  those  of  the  potato 
lima  type  and  with  a  strong,  thin  skin.  The  type  was  developed  by 
Mr.  N.  S.  Prime,  of  Huntington,  N.  Y.,  and  is  being  introduced  by 
Burpee,  Philadelphia. 

Isabell's  perfect  early. 

This  variety  is  worth  a  careful  trial.  The  vine  is  said  to  be  very 
hardy  and  vigorous.  The  pods  are  long,  curved  and  sharply  tipped; 
the  beans  large  and  easily  threshed.  It  is  handled  by  S.  M.  Isabell 
&  Company,  Jackson,  Mich. 

The  Cornell  (N.  Y.)  Experiment  Station1  has  tested  a  large  number 
of  the  pole  limas  and  names  the  following  as  being  desirable,  relatively 
early,  prolific  varieties  of  good  quality,  and  some  of  them  might  be 
worthy  of  careful  trial  in  California : 

Bliss  (also  called  Extra  Early,  and  Extra  Early  Jersey)  and  Kaighn's 
Improved;  and  of  the  potato  types  of  limas,  Dreer's  Improved.  Pro- 
fessor Bailey1  pronounces  this  a  strong,  productive  grower,  which  can 
be  particularly  recommended  "for  its  quality  and  for  the  large  yield 
of  shelled  beans  in  proportion  to  the  bulk  of  pods. "  It  is  further  com- 
mended for  its  earliness  and  ease  of  threshing,  "from  the  fact  that  the 
pods  are  entirely  full  of  beans,  forming  one  against  the  other,  like  peas 
in  a  pod." 

We  have  been  able  to  make  but  little  observation  of  the  bush  forms, 
but  for  localities  of  short  season,  and  otherivise  adapted  to  lima  produc- 
tion, Burpee's  Improved,  Bush,  the  Fordhook,  and  Dreer's  Bush,  are 
probably  the  best  of  the  type.  The  first  named  is  shown  in  Figs.  2  and 
21,  the  Fordhook  in  Fig.  20. 


NEED  AND  POSSIBILITY  OF  IMPROVEMENT. 

Present  mixture  of  varieties  and  confusion  of  names. 

While  cultural  methods  are  entirely  commendable,  and  implements 
the  best  known  to  the  industry,  there  remains  a  great  need  of  improve- 
ments in  the  bean  itself.  Seed  has  been  shifted  from  place  to  place, 
varietal  names  sometimes  being  carried  and  sometimes  forgotten.  This 
has  led  to  more  or  less  mixtures  of  varieties  and  confusion  of  names.  A 
lot  of  beans  may  be  grown  for  a  year  or  two  with  no  variety  name. 
Then  a  buyer  pronounces  the  bean  to  be  a  certain  variety,  and  it  is  so 
designated  as  long  as  grown  in  that  locality.  However,  this  confusion 
of  varieties  is  no  more  than  that  in  varieties  of  other  general  crops 
grown  over  the  State  and  in  other  states.  Neither  is  the  mixture  greater 
than  among  varieties  of  limas  grown  in  the  east. 

aBul.  No.  115,  Cornell  Experiment  Station. 


228  UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

There  come  up  from  time  to  time  certain  strains  which  are  selected 
of  true  and  uniform  type.  These  are  rightly  given  a  new  name  to  des- 
ignate them  as  selected  types.  When  grown  generally,  however,  without 
continuing  selection  or  paying  special  attention  to  avoid  mixtures,  they 
become  mixed  like  the  others.  Yet  the  new  type  may  dominate.  An 
example  of  this  is  the  Lewis  lima,  so  extensively  grown.  It  is  from  a 
selection  made  in  the  Carpinteria  Valley  about  1888  and  bears  the  name 
of  the  originator.  It  is  an  earlier  and  shorter-vined  bean  than  the 
stock  from  which  it  came,  and  its  popularity  among  growers  attests  the 
fact  of  its  being  a  real  improvement  for  California  conditions.  How- 
ever, seed  has  become  somewhat  mixed  with  other  varieties ;  also  lack  of 
continued  selection  has  allowed  considerable  un-uniformity  of  type.  The 
other  two  types  mainly  grown  are  the  Daily  and  King  of  the  Garden. 
The  last  named,  however,  has  been  practically  discarded  on  account  of 
the  tenacity  of  the  pod  and  the  consequent  splitting  of  the  beans  in 
threshing. 

Present  method  of  seed  selection. 

Seed  selection  is  at  present  practiced,  but  not  such  a  method  as  will 
do  much  toward  maintaining  a  definite,  uniform  type.  The  method  used 
is  that  of  hand  picking  for  seed  purposes,  and  amounts  only  to  a  good 
recleaning  with  elimination  of  the  ' '  poppers, ' '  a  well  defined  and  unde- 
sirable bean  of  the  small,  flat  class  of  limas.  (See  page  204.)  This 
bean  is  undesirable  not  because  of  inferior  taste  or  of  production,  but 
because  its  pods  snap  open  when  harvesting  and  handling  the  crop. 
Some  growers  consider  this  bean  a  deteriorated  form  of  the  large,  flat 
lima,  basing  their  judgment  on  the  fact  of  its  appearance  in  fields 
planted  and  hand-picked  seed  of  the  large,  flat  class.  Other  growers 
claim  that  it  is  a  mixture  of  the  Sievas.  Both  are  probably  right.  The 
appearance  of  the  "  poppers "  seems  to  be  caused  by  reversion  to  an 
original  type,  which  is  the  type  of  the  Sieva.  This  accounts  for  its 
appearance  in  fields  where  seed  of  the  Sieva  or  "popper"  has  neither 
been  left  in  the  ground  the  year  before  nor  planted  as  a  mixture  with 
the  large,  flat  seeded  type.  Professor  Bailey,  who  has  given  consider- 
able attention  to  the  lima  bean,  writes  as  follows  concerning  thep 
appearance:  "I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the  bean  you  sent  me  is  one 
of  the  forms  of  the  Sieva  bean  (Phaseolus  lunatus) .  This  type  of  bean 
appears  frequently  in  fields  of  lima  beans,  and  is  more  likely  to  come  in 
when  the  stock  is  not  very  carefully  "roughed"  or  selected.  I  presume 
it  is  a  reversion,  although  it  is  possible  that  it  may  be  a  mixture  of  seed. 
I  should  scarcely  expect  the  latter. ' ' 

No  doubt  the  fhixture  in  some  California  fields  is  at  least  partly  due 
to  the  planting  of  the  seed  as  a  mixture  with  the  other  beans.  The  writer 
has  seen  hand-picked  beans  ready  for  planting  in  which  some  of  the 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OF   THE   LIMA  BEAN.  229 

"poppers"  remained  after  hand  picking.  Neither  is  it  surprising  that 
such  should  be  the  case,  for  although  the  "popper"  is  quite  easily 
recognized  by  its  small  size,  together  with  thin,  flat  shape  and  ivory 
color,  it  requires  great  care  and  close  attention  to  eliminate  all  of  them 
from  the  general  seed  lot.  And  even  if  all  the  ' '  poppers ' '  are  separated 
from  the  seed  for  planting,  there  may  still  be  left  some  hybrids  of  the 
large,  flat  type  and  the  Sieva,  which  will  produce  typical  "poppers." 

Value  of  hand  picking. 

The  practice  of  hand  picking  is  good  just  so  far  as  it  affects  the  qual- 
ity of  the  seed.  By  hand  picking,  a  very  large  portion  of  the  "poppers" 
are  removed,  and  any  seed  of  the  large,  flat  class  of  limas  which  may  be 
very  small  because  unripe  at  harvest,  and  hence  likely  to  make  weak 
growth  if  planted,  will  also  be  removed,  together  with  all  decayed  or 
moldy  beans.  This  insures,  as  far  as  strong  seed  can,  a  good  germination 
and  even  stand  in  the  field  the  following  season  with  a  limited  number 
of  "poppers."  It  is  a  practice  which  is  conducive  to  higher  yields  per 
acre  from  the  seed  used,  but  makes  no  pretension  of  permanently  im- 
proving the  seed. 

DESIRABILITY  OF  BETTER  SELECTION. 

Value  of  selection. 

Of  all  the  subjects  related  to  better  agriculture,  no  one  subject  is  of 
greater  importance  than  that  of  the  improvement  of  the  general  crops 
by  seed  selection  and  breeding.  This  subject  is  of  the  greatest  commer- 
cial importance,  from  the  fact  that  it  costs  no  more  to  grow  improved 
varieties  of  farm  crops  than  the  unimproved  sorts,  while  the  increase  in 
production,  due  to  the  use  of  improved  seed,  results  in  considerable 
additional  profit. 

In  late  years  there  has  been  a  great  awakening  on  this  subject,  and 
marked  improvement  has  resulted  from  selection  and  breeding  as  applied 
to  corn,  tobacco,  cotton,  wheat  and  oats,  as  well  as  with  horticultural 
crops.  The  improvement  of  general  farm  crops  has  not  advanced  as 
rapidly  as  in  the  case  of  horticultural  crops,  because  the  necessity  of 
such  improvement  has  not  been  so  apparent,  but  with  the  increasing 
price  of  land  and  greater  attention  being  given  to  specialized  and  more 
intrinsic  farming  interest,  such  improvement  of  crops  has  now  become  as 
great  as  in  the  case  of  flowers  and  fruit  and  live  stock. 

The  object  of  seed  selection  is,  of  course,  the  development  of  im- 
proved varieties  of  crops  adapted  to  commercial  growing.  The  average 
yield  of  most  of  our  cultivated  crops  is  comparatively  small  where  com- 
pared with  the  possibilities  where  improved  seed  and  varieties  are  used. 
While  the  causes  of  this  low  average  yield  are  many,  one  of  the  most 
potent  is  the  use  of  seed  of  low  vitality,  giving  a  poor  or  uneven  stand, 
3— bul  224 


230 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


and  the  use  of  varieties  not  adapted  to  local  conditions.  If  nothing 
more  is  done  than  the  overcoming  of  these  difficulties,  much  of  value 
would  be  accomplished.  The  income  from  the  crops  would  be  increased 
and  with  but  little  additional  expense. 

The  object  of  selection  is  the  finding  of  the  best  plants  in  a  variety, 
the  propagation  of  these  plants  under  favorable  conditions  until  they 
may  be  depended  upon  to  produce  true  to  type  under  ordinary  methods 
of  cultivation,  and  thus  securing  a  more  desirable  type  for  planting. 

The  variability  of  individual  plants  of  all 

crops  is  very  great,  so  that  the  possibility  of 

securing  more  vigorous  and  better  strains  is 

very  wide  and  extends  to  every  community. 

But  the  greater  value  of  seed  selection  lies 

in  the  possibility  of  advance- 


|f 


ment,  of  intensifying  desir- 
able characters  in  the  most 
marked  degree.  The  effi- 
ciency of  this  method  is  very 
great,  as  has  been  shown  in 
selection  of  many  field  crops, 
notably  wheat,  corn  and  cot- 
ton, but  its  degree  is,  in  all 
selection,  dependent  upon 
the  intensity  of  the  charac- 
ter in  the  plants  selected, 
in  other  words,  upon  the 
standard  of  selection.  Gal- 
ton1  has  shown  that  one 
generation  of  a  99  degree 
selection  accomplishes  more 
improvement  than  two  gen- 
erations of  90  degrees  selection,  and  is  equal  to  perpetual  80  degree 
selection;  that  two  generations  of  99  degree  selection  are  greater  than 
four  generations  of  95  degree  selection,  or  90  degree  selection  carried 
to  perpetuity.  In  view  of  this,  the  importance  of  selecting  only  the  best 
plants  for  propagation  of  seed  and  further  selection  is  readily  seen. 

Adaptation  to  improvement  of  the  lima  bean. 

In  considering  the  adaptation  of  field  selection  of  individual  plants 
to  improvement  of  the  lima  bean,  three  things  must  be  considered,  viz., 
the  variability  of  the  lima  bean  in  nature,  its  plasticity  or  ease  of  mold- 
ing, and  the  extent  to  which  new  or  intensified  characters  can  be  fixed 
and  made  permanent  in  the  newly  molded  type. 

If  we  walk  through  a  field  of  limas  about  harvest  time  we  will,  per- 


Fig.  21. — Two  plants  of  the  Lewis  variety- 
planted  the  same  day  in  the  same  held.  One 
is  in  full  bloom  ;  the  other  is  fully  ripe. 


'Quoted  in  Year  Book  of  U.  S.  D.  A.  1898. 


Bulletin  224] 


THE   PRODUCTION   OP    THE   LIMA   BEAN. 


231 


haps,  note  first  that  there  is  a  great  difference  in  vine  length  of  plants 
side  by  side.  One  plant  will  be  spreading  over  the  ground  in  all  direc- 
tions with  a  very  rank  growth,  while  the  plant  beside  it  will  seem  neces- 
sarily limited  to  a  small  growth  because  of  the  rank  growth  of  its 
fellows.  If  this  difference  could  be  traced  back,  it  would  often  be  found 
to  have  begun  when  the  plants  were  very  small  and  both  had  plenty 
of  room.  But,  because  it  was  natural  for  one  plant  to  grow  faster  and 
stronger,  this  plant  got  the  start,  possibly  limiting  the  growth  of  the 
other  later  when  the  demands  of  both  were  greater.  Other  plants  will 
be  found  which  are  entirely  green  and  in  full  bloom,  while  beside  them 
will  be  plants  almost  or  entirely  dry.  (See  Fig.  22.)  Some  plants  will 
be  found  with  very  few  pods,  while  other  plants  will  be  heavily  podded. 


Fig.  22.  Showing  difference  in  productiveness  of  two  plants  of  the  same 
variety  growing  side  by  side.  The  pods  in  each  pile  are  the  total  pods  of 
individual   plants. 

(See  Fig.  23.)  Extremes  will  be  noticed  also  in  size  of  pods  and  other 
characters.  (See  Fig.  24.)  It  requires,  then,  only  a  short  excursion 
into  the  field  to  satisfy  one  that  the  limas  do  vary  in  nature;  in  fact, 
few  groups  of  plants  will  be  found  which  show  greater  variations. 

Now  the  question  arises,  will  it  be  possible  to  mold  these  plants  alike, 
or  to  produce  from  one  of  them  a  type  which  will  be  uniform?  Can 
we  get  the  whole  field  of  plants  alike,  or  nearly  so,  in  form,  maturity, 
and  fruiting  habit?  And  can  we  mold  into  the  plants  in  this  uniform 
degree  the  best  and  most  desirable  characters  which  now  mark  any 
individuals?  Furthermore,  can  these  desirable  characters  be  intensified 
to  make  still  better  plants?  And  lastly,  will  these  characters  become 
fixed  and  permanent  in  the  plant,  making  a  constant  race? 

To  intelligently  answer  these  questions  we  must  look  back  to  nature 
and  read  nature's  laws  in  what  has  been  done  with  lima  beans  and  other 
closely  related  species.  We  find  variability  in  all  species  of  plants. 
Certain  species  of  Leguminosce,  however,  are  notably  variable,  among 
others  being  Phaseolus  and  Vigna,  the  species  name  of  the  cowpea  and 
a  species  very  close  to  the  lima  bean  in  a  natural  classification.  We 
find  this  latter  species  adapting  itself  to  local  soils  and  climate  of  the 
East,  South,  and  Middle  West  in  a  really  surprising  extent.     Short 


232 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


maturing  varieties  are  grown  to  the  north  and  for  catch  crops  in  all 
regions  of  its  growth.  Varieties  with  heavy  production  of  vine  or  of 
seed  are  grown  for  hay  or  grain,  respectively.  It  has  been  found  that 
to  produce  a  new  variety  or  type  differing  considerably  from  the  parent 


Fig. 


:3. — Showing  the  difference  in  average  size  of  pods  on  two  plants  and  the  plants 
on  which  they  grew.     The  plant  on  the  right  is  a  "popper." 


variety,  it  needs  only  a  change  of  soil  and  climate.  It  is  found  also  to 
maintain  this  general  type  fairly  well  when  grown  under  the  same  con- 
ditions which  originated  it ;  hence  we  find  it  easily  molded,  and  nature 
largely  making  her  own  selections,  but  still  producing  marked  varia- 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OP   THE   LIMA   BEAN.  233 

tions.  In  studying  the  lima  bean,  we  find  that  varieties  have  been 
produced  from  pole  forms  which  are  constant  in  having  the  erect  bush 
form.  We  also  find  great  changes  in  other  characters,  but  without  the 
constancy  which  marks  the  bush  character.  However,  as  long  as  plants 
continue  to  vary,  just  so  long  is  there  chance  of  improvement.  If  a 
point  of  absolute  constancy  could  be  reached  in  regard  to  one  or  more 
characters,  all  improvement  in  those  characters  would  necessarily  stop. 
In  the  fact  of  variation  is  all  hope  of  improvement f  either  temporary  or 
permanent.  Whether  or  not  the  plant  can  be  molded  into  a  uniform 
type  depends  on  the  species,  and  on  the  skill  and  patience  of  the  plant 
breeder.  It  may  be  said  of  the  lima  bean,  as  well  as  of  other  species 
which  vary  naturally  as  much  as  the  lima  bean,  that  a  type  can  un- 
doubtedly be  obtained  much  more  uniform  than  is  at  present  grown 
under  field  conditions. 

The  very  fact  that  the  lima  bean  has  such  a  tendency  to  vary  will 
doubtless  make  it  hard  to  fix  those  variable  characters.  It  must  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  the  power  to  transmit  its  own  character  to  its 
offspring  is  as  much  a  character  of  the  plant  as  any  other.  If,  then, 
a  desirable  plant  can  be  isolated,  which  for  several  generations  demon- 
strates its  power  to  transmit  its  characters  with  but  little  variations,  it 
should  be  taken  as  the  foundation  stock  of  the  new  type.  Having  once 
obtained  a  desirable  and  somewhat  dependable  foundation  stock,  selec- 
tion should  go  on  to  take  advantage  of  such  variation  as  may  occur  on 
the  side  of  improvement  and  to  weed  out  those  plants  with  atavistic 
tendencies.  A  quotation  from  De  Vries1  will  emphasize  the  need  of 
continuing  the  selection.     He  says: 

''Hence,  as  a  rule,  we  obtain,  as  a  result  of  selection,  a  constant 
race.  But  .  .  .  though  the  race  is  constant,  it  is  not  independent. 
Originated  with  selection,  it  is  only  with  the  continual  aid  of  selec- 
tion that  it  can  persist.  If  selection  ceases,  the  descendants  of 
even  the  most  noble  race  will  return  in  a  few  generations  to  the 
type  of  the  species. " 

What  we  must  select,  then,  is  a  plant  with  such  an  individuality 
that  it  will,  with  a  minimum  of  selection,  maintain  its  improved  char- 
acters and  type. 

A  PRACTICAL  PLAN  OF  SEED  IMPROVEMENT. 

Description  and  general  value. 

A  better  method  of  seed  selection  than  the  one  now  commonly  prac- 
ticed (see  page  229)  would  be  in  addition  to  that  outlined  above,  the 
selection  of  individual  plants  in  the  field.  This  can  be  done  at  small 
cost,  just  before  harvest  of  the  general  crop.  The  old  method  of  har- 
vesting, that  of  pulling  the  plants,  will  have  to  be  used,  and,  further- 

xTJnity  in  Variability.  An  address  delivered  before  the  University  of  Amsterdam, 
printed  in  Album  der  Natuur,  No.  3,  1898.  Translation  printed  in  the  University 
Chronicle. 


234  UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

more,  the  plants  must  be  carried  out  of  the  field  to  be  piled,  in  order 
that  the  selections  shall  not  be  in  the  way  of  the  cutters  at  the  harvest 
of  the  main  crop.  However,  by  taking  the  beans  required  for  seed 
from  near  the  sides  of  the  field,  one  will  avoid  carrying  the  plants  long 
distances.  Before  threshing  the  machine  should  be  cleaned  of  any 
morning-glory  or  other  weed  seed  which  it  might  have,  thus  preventing, 
in  large  measure,  the  spreading  of  these  pests  from  infected  to  unin- 
fected fields. 

This  selection  in  the  field  would  insure  freedom  of  the  seed  from 
admixture  of  "poppers,"  while  hand  picking  would  add  its  benefit  by 
eliminating  any  small  or  moldy  seed.  Uniformity  of  plant  and  of  seed 
in  all  characters  can  also  be  obtained,  giving  a  product  such  as  the  best 
markets  demand,  and  for  which  the  highest  prices  are  paid. 

The  grower  himself  can  do  much  more  than  he  is  now  doing  toward 
improving  his  yield  by  seed  selection.  A  practical  method  of  seed 
improvement,  which  should  be  followed  by  every  bean  grower  in  Cali- 
fornia, is  the  maintenance  of  a  seed  plat.  The  method  is  simple  and 
easily  applied.  First,  select  from  the  general  field,  at  the  time  of  crop 
maturity,  a  large  number  of  plants  that  are  manifestly  heavily  laden 
with  ripe  pods,  choosing,  so  far  as  possible,  those  plants  bearing  a  high 
average  of  beans  to  the  pod.  These  plants  should  not  be  taken  from 
spots  where  the  stand  is  poor,  nor  from  outside  rows,  nor  from  parts 
of  the  land  which  are  unusually  fertile,  but  should,  rather,  represent 
those  grown  upon  the  general  soil  condition.  These  selected  plants 
should  be  removed  from  the  field  and  threshed  separately  from  the 
general  crop.  The  seed,  so  selected,  should  be  used  upon  a  special  seed 
plat  the  succeeding  season,  and  the  seed  from  this  seed  plat  used  in  the 
second  season  for  the  general  seeding.  This  selection  could  be  carried 
still  further  by  choosing  the  very  best  plants  from  the  seed  plat  to  be 
increased  in  the  second  season  for  subsequent  use  upon  the  seed  plat, 
and  thus  introduce  a  little  more  vigorous  selection.  In  order  to  accom- 
plish permanent  results,  the  grower  should  practice  such  selection  every 
year.  More  elaborate  plans  of  selection  could  be  worked  out,  but  the  gen- 
eral grower  usually  has  not  the  time  at  his  disposal  to  undertake  more 
elaborate  schemes.  The  above  plan,  however,  is  so  simple  that  there 
is  no  apparent  reason  why  it  should  not  be  quite  universally  applied  to 
this  as  well  as  other  crops. 


SPECIAL  IMPROVEMENT  DESIRABLE  IN  THE  LIMA  BEAN. 

Early  maturity. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  cutting  of  some  fields  is  done  before 
the  plants  are  fully  matured  and  before  the  beans  have  reached  their 
full  size.  This  indicates  need  of  an  earlier-maturing  bean.  This  need 
was  expressed  to  the  writer  by  one  man  as  follows:  "We  always  have 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OF   THE  LIMA  BEAN.  235 

to  think  about  the  early  fall  rains,  and  they  are  a  constant  worry  until 
the  beans  are  all  in  the  warehouse.  We  do  not  often  lose  very  much  on 
account  of  the  rains,  but  we  have  to  be  ready  to  cover  up  the  beans  any 
time  of  night ;  and  it  is  a  great  bother  and  extra  work  to  dry  the  beans 
which  get  wet." 

The  actual  loss  some  seasons  is  considerable,  as  will  be  seen  by  the 
following  clipping  from  the  California  Fruit  Grower,  annual  review  and 
harvest  edition,  December  14,  1907 : 

"The  lima  bean  crop  this  year  is  about  equal  to  that  of  last  in  size, 
but  on  account  of  rains  which  occurred  during  harvest,  which  caught 
a  third  of  the  crop  in  Ventura  County,  or  about  200,000  bags  in  the 
field,  it  will  mean  that  there  will  be  this  quantity  of  damaged  beans 
offered  on  the  market.  The  absolute  damage  is  about  20  per  cent  of 
that  portion  which  was  out,  but  as  the  warehouses  in  the  southern  part 
of  California  are  not  equipped  with  facilities  for  hand  picking  prop- 
erly, it  will  be  a  very  hard  matter  to  make  choice  quality  of  the  rain- 
damaged  stock,  and  it  will  have  to  be  marketed  at  a  concession  under 
the  price  of  stock  free  from  rain  damage."  About  the  same  condition 
as  this  obtained  in  1910  also. 

Notice  that  the  damage  reported,  viz.,  20  per  cent  of  200,000  bags  is 
40,000  bags  worth  at  prevailing  prices,  fall  of  1907,  between  $136,000 
and  $156,000.    Is  it  to  be  wondered  that  the  farmers  worry? 

There  is  also  a  lowering  of  yield,  the  amount  of  which  can  only  be 
conjectured,  due  to  stunting  of  plants  by  cold  east  winds  in  May. 
These  winds  sometimes  blast  certain  fields  badly.  Very  strong  east 
winds  in  the  fall  hasten  the  drying  of  the  beans  that  are  cut,  but  have 
been  known  to  sweep  the  whole  crop  from  the  field.  An  earlier  bean 
would  escape  the  cold  winds  in  May,  also  the  strong  winds  and  the 
rain  of  September. 

Yield. 

Another  very  desirable  improvement  is  that  of  yield.  Grant  all  other 
improvements,  then,  without  high  yield  the  grower  does  not  want  the 
plant.  And  the  grower's  position  is  indisputable.  High  yield  is  of 
first  importance.  In  observing  the  plants  in  the  field,  vast  differences 
can  be  seen  in  yield  of  individuals.  However,  it  will  be  observed 
almost  as  plainly  that  the  heaviest  yielding  plants  are  usually  late 
maturing,  and  that  the  early  maturing  plants  are  light  yielders.  See 
charts  Nos.  I  and  II. 

If  there  is  a  chance  of  improvement  by  selection  of  those  individuals 
showing  marked  character,  these  plants  would  seem  to  be  the  ones  to 
start  with  to  fix  earliness  in  a  high  yielding  strain.  Time  only  will  tell 
whether  there  is  within  one  or  more  of  these  plants  the  power  to  trans- 
mit these  desirable  characters,  yet  it  seems  likely  that  among  the  num- 


236  UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 

ber  which  will  be  tested  for  hereditary  power,  some  will  be  found  vastly 
better  than  the  average  of  the  fields  at  present.  Galton,  in  his  work 
on  natural  inheritance,  describes  an  experiment  with  seeds  of  sweet 
pea  {Lathy rus  odoratus)  in  which  progression  was  in  proportion  to 
deviation,  viz.,  one  third  progression  to  two  thirds  regression.  If  such 
a  relation  should  hold  with  some  of  these  selections  of  limas,  one  or  two 
years  will  show  a  marked  improvement  in  both  yield  and  earliness. 

Hardiness. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  limas  suffer  from  cold  winds  in  the 
spring.  However,  there  are  certain  plants  which,  although  apparently 
exposed  to  exactly  the  same  conditions  as  their  fellows,  are  not  injured 
so  much,  or  even  none  at  all.  By  taking  seed  from  these  seemingly 
resistent  individuals,  we  should  expect  to  produce,  after  several  genera- 
tions, a  strain  capable  of  enduring  and  growing  under  colder  atmos- 
pheric conditions  than  the  original  or  parent  type.  Moreover,  lengthen- 
ing the  season  of  growth  at  its  beginning  might  allow  of  earlier  ripening 
and  harvest — a  distinct  advantage.  Selecting  in  like  manner  those 
plants  which  appear  resistant  to  alkali  might  give  a  strain  better  suited 
to  alkali  soils  than  any  varieties  now  grown.  Such  a  strain  would  cause 
an  increase  in  the  acreage  of  limas  in  Ventura  County. 

Quality. 

Another  desirable  improvement  could  be  made  in  quality  of  shelled 
beans.  This  is  at  present  especially  desirable  to  the  buyers,  but  would 
result  in  dollars  to  the  growers.  By  quality  is  meant,  not  beans  with  a 
better  flavor  or  more  easily  cooked,  but  beans  which  are  uniform  in 
size,  shape  and  color  and  markings.  Certain  markets  will  not  take  the 
average  quality  of  the  product,  but  require  the  finest  looking  and  most 
uniform  lots  that  can  be  obtained.  This  necessitates  grading  of  the 
beans.  The  culls  go  to  the  less  discriminating  markets  mixed  with 
other  ungraded  lots,  and  are  sold  at  a  lesser  price  than  choice  beans. 
Although  at  present  a  flat  rate  is  paid  the  growers,  the  buyers  and  ship- 
pers grading  the  beans  and  shipping  according  to  market  demands,  this 
flat  rate  might  be  increased  or  a  sliding  scale  established  to  the  benefit 
of  the  enterprising  growers  if  a  uniform  type  of  bean  could  be  fur- 
nished. This  would  not  be  possible  with  the  present  late  maturity,  as 
the  small,  immature  bean  would  always  have  to  be  graded  out,  but 
might  be  possible  with  the  establishment  of  an  early  maturing  strain. 
In  any  case,  the  odd  and  angular-shaped  beans  should  be  eliminated, 
and  this  can  doubtless  be  done  by  paying  more  attention  to  seed  selec- 
tion, rejecting  seed  from  those  plants  showing  a  tendency  to  angularity. 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OF   THE  LIMA  BEAN.  23  < 

PLAN  OF  IMPROVEMENT  AS  UNDERTAKEN. 

A  plan  of  work,  looking  to  the  improvement  of  the  lima  bean,  was 
begun  in  the  summer  of  1908  in  cooperation  with  several  Ventura 
County  farmers.  It  is  expected  to  continue  this  work  for  several  years. 
In  the  selection  of  plants,  special  attention  is  being  given  to  earliness 
where  found  in  high  yielding  individuals.  It  was  expected  that  those 
plants  which  blossomed  heavily  early  in  the  season  would  also  fruit 
heavily  and  ripen  early.  Hence,  the  first  of  July,  when  fields  began 
to  bloom,  the  earliest  and  heaviest  blossoming  plants  were  marked  by 
means  of  a  piece  of  lath  two  feet  in  length  and  set  in  the  ground  beside 
each  plant.  Ten  thousand  stakes  were  thus  set  to  mark  the  same  num- 
ber of  early  blooming  plants,  the  time  of  selection  covering  a  period 
of  two  weeks,  and  being  made  in  both  early  and  late  blooming  plants  in 
each  field.  "While  there  were  individual  cases  in  which  the  early  bloom- 
ing plants  did  not  ripen  early,  the  average  time  of  ripening  of  these 
marked  plants  was  earlier  than  the  average  of  the  field.  Moreover,  an 
advantage  was  gained  in  case  of  selection  by  marking  the  plants  before 
the  vines  became  so  intertwined  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  recognize 
individuals.  If  the  early  selection  had  not  proven  satisfactory,  there 
was  still  the  opportunity  of  selecting  early  maturing  plants  in  the  fall. 
But  the  marked  plants  being  satisfactory  as  to  earliness,  it  was  thought 
to  be  of  no  use  to  make  later  selections  of  other  plants. 

The  selected  plants,  although  earlier  in  maturity  by  perhaps  four 
days  than  the  average  of  the  field,  were  found  at  harvest  to  be  appar- 
ently lower  yielding  than  the  average  of  the  field.  However,  this  was 
not  entirely  unexpected,  and  as  the  original  purpose  had  been  to  make 
a  second  selection  for  yield  within  the  first  selection  for  earliness,  selec- 
tions being  made  from  the  ten  thousand  plants  at  harvest  time.  At  the 
time  of  the  first  selection  in  July,  earliness  of  blooming  stood  almost 
alone  in  influencing  the  marking  of  plants,  except  that  some  attention 
was  given  to  size  and  vigor  of  vine  where  this  did  not  appear  to  be 
due  to  a  difference  in  room,  and  hence  available  to  plant  food.  Vigor- 
ous and  thrifty  plants,  which  appeared  to  be  so  because  of  inherent 
character,  were  selected,  if  blossoming  early,  and  in  no  case  were  small, 
stunted  plants  selected.  At  harvest  time,  however,  it  seemed  necessary 
to  pay  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  yield.  The  plants  were  pulled, 
care  being  taken  to  separate  the  vines  from  the  vines  of  surrounding 
plants,  and  each  was  inspected  quickly  after  turning  it  over,  so  that 
the  pods  were  easily  seen.  If  the  pods  were  found  immature,  or  if  the 
total  number  of  pods  was  small,  it  was  dropped,  except  that  some 
plants  with  a  small  number  of  pods  were  carried  along  if  the  plant 
was  very  mature,  and  some  very  high  yielding  plants  were  carried  on, 
though  immature,  it  being  proposed  to  run  to  lines  of  selection,  one 


238 


UNIVERSITY   OP    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


for  earliness,  the  other  for  yield.     In  this  way,  about  three  thousand 
plants  were  selected  out  of  the  original  ten  thousand. 

After  a  short  period  of  drying,  the  pods  were  picked  from  each 
plant  and  placed  in  a  paper  bag.  The  bags  were  numbered  consecu- 
tively, corresponding  to  cards  on  which  data  regarding  the  number  of 
dry  pods,  a  number  of  pods  to  be  shelled,  and  number  of  pods  too 
immature  to  shell,  length  of  the  vine,  and  number  of  pods  within 
twelve  inches  of  the  central  stem,  were  recorded.  Two  numbers  were 
then  arbitrarily  fixed  for  each  field,  one  representing  number  of  dry 


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pods,  the  other  representing  total  number  of  pods,  and  those  plants 
which  did  not  exceed  either  of  these  numbers  were  discarded.  About 
fifteen  hundred  of  the  more  immature  and  light  yielding  plants  were 
discarded  in  this  way.  The  pods  from  all  the  remaining  plants  were 
shelled,  keeping  the  lot  from  each  plant  separate  from  all  the  others. 
Finally,  all  but  about  six  hundred  from  the  original  ten  thousand  were 
discarded  before  planting  in  the  spring  of  1909.  The  seed  from  these 
six  hundred  plants,  some  representing  early  maturity,  some  represent- 
ing high  yield,  and  some  representing  a  combination  of  these  factors 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OF   THE   LIMA   BEAN.  239 

in  the  same  plant,  were  grown  in  rows  as  foundation  stock  in  1909,  the 
seed  from  each  plant  being  planted  separately,  so  that  the  yield,  earli- 
ness,  and  other  desirable  characters  of  their  produce  might  be  deter- 
mined. A  large  number  of  plants  were  taken  to  increase  the  chances  of 
finding  one  or  more  with  the  power  to  transmit  its  characters  to  the 
next  generation,  or  to  increase  the  chance  of  isolating  mutants. 

Before  planting  in  1909,  other  data  were  determined  and  correlations 
made  which  showed  a  direct  relation  in  the  selection  between  weight  of 
shelled  beans  per  plant,  total  number  of  pods,  number  of  dry  pods, 
weight  of  beans  per  pod,  and  number  of  beans  per  pod.  Correlation 
tables  also  showed  relation  between  the  length  of  vine  and  total  yield 
of  shelled  beans.  This  last  relation  is  shown  on  Chart  No.  I.  On  the 
same  chart  is  also  shown  the  relation  of  these  two  factors  to  the  per- 
centage of  pods  within  12  inches  of  the  stem  of  the  plant.  In  explana- 
tion of  the  curve,  as  it  here  appears,  it  should  be  said  that  on  account 
of  the  difficulty  of  handling  the  original  curve,  including  190  plants 
selected  on  the  basis  of  earliness  and  yield,  the  correlation  is  shown 
here  by  dividing  the  total  number  into  groups  of  ten  each  and  using  as 
the  basis  of  the  curve  here  shown  the  average  figures  obtained  from 
each  group.  Of  course,  the  same  general  relation  between  the  factors 
is  thus  shown  as  though  the  curve  was  based  upon  each  individual 
plant,  although  a  few  wide  variations  of  individuals  do  not  appear. 

From  these  curves  it  appears  that  in  the  case  of  pole  limas  in  general 
the  yield  is  in  proportion  to  the  length  of  the  vine  or  runners,  although 
it  may  be  said  that  occasional  occurrence  of  individual  plants  giving 
high  yield,  with  a  reduced  vining  tendency,  would  indicate  a  possibility 
of  reducing  this  tendency  to  some  extent  and  still  retain  a  satisfactory 
yield.  Further,  essentially  the  same  fact  is  shown  in  the  relation  exist- 
ing between  the  curves  representing  per  cent  of  pods,  within  12  inches 
of  the  main  plant,  and  the  yield.  In  this  case  it  is  noticeable  that  the 
curves  are  essentially  counter  to  each  other,  that  is,  as  the  per  cent  of 
pods  within  12  inches  of  the  body  of  the  plant  decreases,  the  yield 
increases.  While  the  per  cent  of  pods  within  12  inches  of  the  central 
stem  shows  a  direct  relation  to  the  per  cent  of  dry  pods  on  the  plant, 
the  former  shows  a  slight  opposite  relation  to  the  weight  of  shelled 
beans  per  plant  (yield). 

Under  the  conditions  which  held  at  the  time  of  the  inauguration  of 
this  work,  it  was  impossible  to  secure  the  exact  ripening  date  of  the 
beans;  in  fact,  lima  beans, can  hardly  be  said  to  have  any  date  which 
can  be  set  as  a  "date  of  ripening,"  as  in  the  case  of  grain  and  many 
other  crops;  for  as  long  as  the  vines  remain  green,  they  continue  to 
ripen  pods  on  the  runners  at  increasing  distances  from  the  body  of  the 
plant,  as  has  already  been  shown;  consequently,  the  percentage  of  dry 


240 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


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Bulletin  224] 


THE   PRODUCTION    OP    THE   LIMA   BEAN. 


241 


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242 


UNIVERSITY   OP   CALIFORNIA — EXPERIMENT   STATION. 


pods  within  a  given  length  of  the  runner,  at  a  selected  date,  becomes 
a  factor  which  will  represent  the  relative  degree  of  maturity  of  the 
plant  on  that  date,  as  well  as,  and  perhaps  better  than,  any  other. 
Using  this  factor  to  represent  the  relative  earliness  of  the  plants  and 
correlating,  in  the  form  of  a  curve,  such  data  with  that  of  weight  of 
shelled  beans  per  plant,  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  two  elements  are,  in 
general,  antagonistic.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that  this  curve  rep- 
resents only  the  field-selected  plants.  Just  what  the  curves  would 
show  if  all  the  plants  in  a  row,  or  in  a  part  of  the  field,  were  included, 


Chart  No.  IV. 

can  only  be  surmised,  but,  judging  from  appearances  in  the  field,  the 
same  general  relation  would  hold  between  these  two  characters. 

This  same  fact  is  again  shown  (Chart  III)  in  using  the  individual 
plants  in  a  variety,  instead  of  the  group  arrangement  which  appears 
in  Chart  II. 

A  study  of  these  curves  shows  that  the  yield  increases  much  more 
rapidly  than  does  the  percentage  of  ripe  pods.  This  seems  to  offer 
some  hope  of  ultimately  being  able  to  make  a  selection  within  a  selec- 
tion, by  which  we  may  be  able  to  secure  a  plant  which  may  be  earlier 


Bulletin  224]  THE   PRODUCTION   OP   THE   LIMA   BEAN. 


243 


1   Mil   II   i   I   I   I   I   I   I  "I  1   i 


244  UNIVERSITY   OP   CALIFORNIA — EXPERIMENT   STATION. 

than  those  now  grown,  and,  at  the  same  time,  maintain  yield  as  high 
as  the  present  average,  and  it  may  be  possible  to  raise  such  average 
slightly.  Great  care  will  have  to  be  exercised  in  selection,  not  to  select 
so  closely  for  early  maturity  as  to  kill  the  matter  of  yield. 

Correlating  the  yield,  average  number  of  beans  per  pod,  and  the 
average  weight  per  bean  it  appears  that  the  former  characters  are 
directly  related,  but  that  the  last  named  character  is  a  distinctly 
reverse  relationship. 

Prepotency  in  high  yield,  or  the  ability  to  project  high  productivity 
into  the  succeeding  crop,  can  not  be  determined  merely  upon  the  fact 
that  the  plants  selected  as  foundation  stock  gave  a  high  yield.  Many 
plants  may  themselves  carry  a  high  yield,  but  still  not  possess  the  projec- 
tive power  to  influence  succeeding  crops.  To  determine  which  of  the  orig- 
inal plants  selected  on  account  of  their  productiveness,  as  foundation 
stock,  possess  this  projective  power,  demands  a  field  trial  of  each  of  the 
plants  of  the  foundation  stock  for  two  or  three  seasons.  An  accurate 
performance  record  of  each  plant  can  be  obtained.  This  is  done  by  the 
plant-to-row  record,  in  which  trials  one  row  is  planted  from  the  beans 
of  each  of  the  selected  plants,  and  accurate  record  of  the  yield,  and 
other  characteristics  of  each  of  the  rows,  being  kept.  Such  trial  have 
been  made  each  year  since  1908,  both  at  Somis  and  at  Oxnard.  As  a 
result  of  these  trials,  the  following  performance  record  for  the  three 
years  is  here  shown  with  one  of  the  varieties  under  selection. 

This  prepotency  in  the  direction  of  high  yield  is  further  shown  in 
the  case  of  a  number  of  the  strains  under  selection  in  the  following 
chart,  which  represents  one  series  of  the  plantings  of  1910.  In  this 
chart,  each  of  the  perpendicular  lines  represents  the  average  yield  of 
beans  per  plant  from  individual  strains  after  three  years'  selection  in 
a  plant-to-row  test.  The  lines  marked  with  the  letter  C  represent  check 
rows  of  common  stock.  Each  of  these  strains  was  started  from  a  high 
yielding  parent  plant.  It  will  be  noted  that  only  a  comparatively  few 
of  those  plants  in  this  series  have  shown  the  ability  to  continually 
project  the  character  of  high  yield  to  their  progeny.  This  is  indicated 
by  the  few  lines  extending  above  the  line  connecting  the  check  rows. 
The  particular  strains  which  show  prepotency  in  this  direction  are 
the  desirable  strains  which  are  to  be  increased  and  finally  put  into 
distribution  to  the  growers. 


Bulletin  224] 


THE    PRODUCTION    OF    THE   LIMA    BEAN. 


245 


DESIRABLE  NEW  STRAINS. 

As  the  result  of  this  season's  work  in  selection,  some  exceedingly 
promising  strains  have  been  developed,  and  seed  from  the  more  desir- 
able ones  is  now  being  increased.  After  eliminating  from  consid- 
eration these  strains  which,  in  the  first  season,  failed  to  meet  the 
requirements  in  the  direction  of  projective  efficiency  in  productiveness, 
we  have  remaining  those  used  in  the  season  of  1910,  which  gave  the 
performance  record  shown  in  Table  I. 

table:  ii. 

Showing  performance   record   of   selected  strain   of   lima   beans    in   plant-to-row    test, 

1909-1910,  inclusive. 


Season  of  1908. 


Season  of  1909. 


Season  of  1910. 


Number  of  original  parent  plant  for 
1909  crop. 


Average  yield  per  plant. 


<     Average  yield  of  beans 
£•  planted. 


1488 
1397 
1226 
1502 
1545 
1485 
1467 
1339 
1518 
1292 
1404 
1228 
1381 
1282 
1494 
1484 
1421 
1521 
1424 
1300 
Ck. 


91 
90 
73 

JUT 
74 
96 
82 
83 
84 
82 
84 
70 

105 


70.75 


89.71 
81.78 
60.58 
G6.78 
83.48 


(x) 


Grand  average  _. 
Per  cent  increase 


54.00 

56.00 

51.25 

54.62 

62.25 

58.30 

51.00 

53.77 

69.00 

80.66 

51.00 

46.98 

36.75 

58.30 



61.13 

72.69 

16.95% 

64.00 
57.00 
52.00 
71.20 
70.50 
70.00 
69.00 
68.00 
67.80 
77.00 
71.80 
71.00 
72.50 
47.00 
49.50 
51.00 
53.77 
56.00 
47.00 
58.00 
61.13 

62.15 


9?B 


153 

160 

192 

145 

114 

221 

107 

187 

207 

144 

161 

225. 

150 

52 

98 

162 

78 

113 

89 

85 

138 


79.80 
62.82 
46.13 
93.95 
55 .  46 
48.11 
82.91 
83.49 
41.32 
61.41 
83.20 
55.48 
58.86 
56.00 
83.77 
64.81 
47.83 
85.75 
51.51 


63.12 
49.81 
43.10 
63.12 
49.81 
43.10 
63.12 
49.81 
43.10 
63.41 
49.20 
43.10 
63.41 
48.10 
57.44 
50.80 
51.57 
57.44 
50.80 
51.57 
57.44 

53.01 


In  this  table  the  lack  of  continued  high  yielding  prepotency  will  be 
noticed  in  the  case  of  strains  Nos.  1518,  1292,  and  1491.  While  these 
were  of  fair  indication  in  1909,  they  fell  short  of  the  check  in  1910, 
and  consequently  were  discarded  in  1911.  The  general  improvement, 
however,  has  been  exceedingly  encouraging.  The  average  increase 
of  these  selected  strains  in  1909  was  16.95  per  cent  over  the  common 
stock  used  as  checks,  and  in  1910  it  was  23.92  per  cent.  On  this  basis, 
if  we  use  the  figures  of  the  total  production  for  Ventura  County  alone, 
4— bul  224 


246 


UNIVERSITY    OP    CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


viz.,  800,000  sacks,  80  pounds  per  sack,  the  increase  from  the  use  of 
such  strains  of  selected  stocks  would  have  been,  in  1910,  191,360  sacks, 
which,  at  an  average  price  of  4  cents  per  pound,  would  mean  a  gain  of 
$612,342.00,  an  amount  well  worth  consideration. 

Selecting  the  six  most  promising  strains  of  this  type,  the  results 
show  as  follows: 

TABLE   III. 

Showing  the  results  of  the  performance  record  of  the  six  most  promising  strains  of 

selected  lima  beans  in  1909  and  1910. 


Season  of  1908. 

Season  of  1909. 

Season  of  1910. 

Weight    of    beans    on 
parent    plant. 

Average  yield 
per  plant. 

Weight    of    beans    on 
selected     plant     for 
1910   parent. 

Average  yield  of 
beans  planted. 

Number  of  original  parent  plant  for  1009  crop. 

ux 
3  o 

60    3 

Check;  com- 
mon stock. 
Grams 

('hock:   com- 
mon stock. 

Selection 

1502    

107.25 
82.00 
83.00 
84.25 
51.25 
69.00 

86.88           71.20 
82.35           69.00 
77.82           68.00 
60.58           71.80 
54.62            49.50 
80.66           56.00 

73.82           (U.9,R 

145 
107 
187 
161 
98 
113 

93.95 
82.91 
83.49 
83  20 

63  12 

1467    

63  12 

1339    

49  81 

1404    

•1Q   90 

1494    . 

83  77           R7  A.A. 

1521    

85.75 
85.51 

Average  

56  69 

Prof.  Willet  M.  Hays,  Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  writes 
as  follows,  with  reference  to  the  possibility  of  plant  improvement  in 
the  United  States : 

"That  the  five  to  six  billion  dollars'  worth  of  plant  and  animal 
products  annually  grown  in  the  United  States  can  be  increased  ten 
per  cent  by  selection  and  breeding  is  not  seriously  doubted  by  those 
best  able  to  judge.  The  addition  of  ten  billion  dollars'  worth  of 
products  every  twenty  years  by  readjusting  the  hereditary  tendencies 
of  our  crops  and  animals  at  a  mere  nominal  cost  is  as  important  as 
the  development  of  electrical  methods  and  appliances,  or  as  the  per- 
fection of  system  of  steel  roads  and  public  highways,  or  as  our  entire 
foreign  commerce.  If,  as  is  believed,  our  plant  and  animal  forces  can 
have  their  heredity  so  improved  that  $50,000,000  is  increased  10  per 
cent  at  a  cost  for  breeding  of  only  $500,000.00,  one  dollar  creating 
$1,000.00,  it  is  certainly  a  good  business  proposition  to  develop  breed- 
ing projects  rapidly  and  freely.  The  evidence  shows  that  this  propo- 
sition is  every  year  developing  into  a  form  that  can  not  be  ignored. 
Our  country  is  destined  to  see  breeding  projects  developed,  as  it  has 
seen  mechanical  projects  grow.  Our.  plant  and  animal  forces  are  fully 
as  potent  economic  factors  as  our  mechanical  forces,  and  are  worthy 
of  as  serious  efforts  to  develop  them." 


STATION     PUBLICATIONS    AVAILABLE    FOR     DISTRIBUTION. 


REPORTS. 

1896.  Report  of  the  Viticultural  Work  during  the  seasons  1887-93,  with  data  regard- 

ing the  Vintages  of  1894-95. 

1897.  Resistant  Vines,  their  Selection,  Adaptation,  and  Grafting.      Appendix  to  Viti- 

cultural Report  for  1896. 

1902.  Report  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  for  1898-1901. 

1903.  Report  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  for  1901-03. 

1904.  Twenty-second  Report  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  for  1903-04. 


BULLETINS. 


Reprint. 
No.    128. 

133. 

147. 
149. 
153. 
159. 

162. 

165. 

167. 

168. 

169. 

170. 
171. 

174. 
176. 


178. 
179. 

180. 
181. 

182. 


183. 
184. 


185. 


186 
187 


188 
189 


190 
191 


Endurance  of  Drought  in  Soils  of 
the  Arid  Region. 

Nature,  Value,  and  Utilization  of 
Alkali  Lands,  and  Tolerance  of 
Alkali.  (Revised  and  Reprint, 
1905.) 

Tolerance  of  Alkali  by  Various 
Cultures. 

Culture  Work  of  the  Sub-stations. 

California  Sugar  Industry. 

Spraying  with  Distillates. 

Contribution  to  the  Study  of 
Fermentation. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  (Dec.  1, 
1904.) 

Asparagus  and  Asparagus  Rust 
in  California. 

Manufacture  of  Dry  Wines  in 
Hot  'Countries. 

Observations  on  Some  Vine  Dis- 
eases in   Sonoma  County. 

Tolerance  of  the  Sugar  Beet  for 
Alkali. 

Studies  in  Grasshopper  Control. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  (June 
30,  1905.) 

A  New  Wine-cooling  Machine. 

Sugar  Beets  in  the  San  Joaquin 
Valley. 

A  New  Method  of  Making  Dry 
Red  Wine. 

Mosquito  Control. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  (June, 
1906.) 

Resistant  Vineyards. 

The  Selection  of  Seed- Wheat. 

Analysis  of  Paris  Green  and 
Lead  Arsenic.  Proposed  In- 
secticide Law. 

The  California  Tussock-moth. 

Report  of  the  Plant  Pathologist 
to  July  1,   1906. 

Report  of  Progress  in  Cereal  In- 
vestigations. 

The  Oidium  of  the  Vine. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  (Janu- 
ary, 1907.) 

Lining  of  Ditches  and  Reservoirs 
to  Prevent  Seepage  and  Losses. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  (June, 
1907.) 

The  Brown  Rot  of  the  Lemon. 

California  Peach  Blight. 


192.  Insects   Injurious  to   the  Vine   in 

California. 

193.  The  Best  Wine  Grapes  for  Cali- 

fornia ;  Pruning  Young  Vines  ; 
Pruning  the  Sultanina. 

194.  Commercial     Fertilizers.        (Dec, 

1907.) 

195.  The  California  Grape  Root- worm. 

197.  Grape  Culture  in  California ;    Im- 

proved Methods  of  Wine-mak- 
ing;  Yeast  from  California 
Grapes. 

198.  The  Grape  Leaf- Hopper. 

199.  Bovine  Tuberculosis. 

200.  Gum  Diseases  of  Citrus  Trees  in 

California. 

201.  Commercial    Fertilizers.       (June, 

1908.) 

202.  Commercial  Fertilizers.      (Decem- 

ber, 1908.) 

203.  Report   of   the   Plant   Pathologist 

to  July  1,  1909. 

204.  The  Dairy  Cow's  Record  and  the 

Stable. 

205.  Commercial  Fertilizers.      (Decem- 

ber,   1909.) 

206.  Commercial    Fertilizers.       (June, 

1910.) 

207.  The  Control  of  the  Argentine  Ant. 

208.  The  Late  Blight  of  Celery. 

209.  The  Cream  Supply. 

210.  Imperial     Valley     Settlers'     Crop 

Manual. 

211.  How    to    Increase    the    Yield    of 

Wheat  in   California. 

212.  California  White  Wheats. 

213.  The  Principles  of  Wine-making. 

214.  Citrus  Fruit  Insects. 

215.  The  House  Fly  in  its  Relation  to 

Public  Health. 

216.  A  Progress  Report  upon  Soil  and 

Climatic  Factors  Influencing 
the  Composition  of  Wheat. 

217.  Honey  Plants  of  California. 

218.  California  Plant   Diseases. 

219.  Report  of  Live   Stock  Conditions 

in  Imperial  County,  California 

220.  Fumigation  Studies  No.   5  ;    Dos- 

age Tables. 

221.  Commercial  Fertilizers. 

222.  The  Red  or  Orange   Scale. 

223.  The  Black  Scale. 


CIRCULARS. 


Xo.     1.  Texas  Fever. 

5.  Contagious  Abortion  in  Cows. 
7.  Remedies  for  Insects. 
9.  Asparagus  Rust. 

11.  Fumigation  Practice. 

12.  Silk  Culture. 

15.  Recent    Problems    in    Agriculture. 
What  a  University  Farm  is  For. 
19.  Disinfection  of  Stables. 

29.  Preliminary    Announcement    Con- 

cerning Instruction  in  Practical 
Agriculture  upon  the  University 
Farm,  Davis,  Cal. 

30.  White  Fly  in  California. 

32.  White  Fly  Eradication. 

33.  Packing    Prunes    in    Cans.      Cane 

Sugar  vs.  Beet  Sugar. 

Analyses    of    Fertilizers    for    Con- 
sumers. 

Instruction    in    Practical    Agricul- 
ture at  the  University  Farm. 
46.   Suggestions   for   Garden   Work   in 
California  Schools. 

Butter  Scoring  Contest,  1909. 

Fumigation  Scheduling. 


36. 


39. 


-is. 
50. 


No.   52.  Information  for  Students  Concern- 
ing the  College  of  Agriculture. 

54.  Some      Creamery     Problems     and 

Tests. 

55.  Farmers'    Institutes    and    Univer- 

sity Extension  in  Agriculture. 
58.  Experiments  with  Plants  and  Soils 
in  Laboratory,  Garden,  and  Field. 

60.  Butter  Scoring  Contest,  1910. 

61.  University  Farm  School. 

62.  The  School  Garden  in  the  Course 

of  Study. 

63.  How  to  Make  an  Observation  Hive. 

64.  Announcement   of  Farmers'    Short 

Courses  for  1911. 

65.  The  California  Insecticide  Law. 

66.  Insecticides  and  Insect  Control. 

67.  Development  of  Secondary   School 

Agriculture  in  California. 

68.  The  Prevention  of  Hog  Cholera. 

69.  The    Extermination    of    Morning- 

Glory. 

70.  Observations   on    Status   of   Corn- 

growing  in  California. 


